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bitchlessdino · 1 year

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chan- your personal knight/guard. been by your side since what feels like practically forever and has protected you against pretty much everything. You both are close but despite knowing him for so many years and being so close you realise you don’t actually know that much about him so on a walk maybe you’re just asking him random questions about him and learning more about him as a person. Somehow the conversations moved from something like his favourite colour to why he’s not settled down and without missing a beat he’s already answered because of you. Queue a love confession from your knight/guard that you reciprocate.

On a regular basis struggling with cheol and chan rot but today felt fluffy- idk i just think chan would be so sweet as your guard like him being super protective like ‘don’t pick that flower it might be poisonous let me check it’ and it’s like a dandelion or somet 😭

anyways just wanted to leave this with you and express how much I love your work!! I hope you have a good rest of your day or evening and genuinely thank you for taking the time to write on here, i truly appreciate the fact you take time out of your own day to read peoples requests and write whatever comes to mind <33

Pairing: royal!reader x bodyguard!chan

Genre: fluff

Word count: 3.1k

tags: royal au, overprotective chan, yearning, childhood au, love confessions, misunderstandings

author note: I forget how much fun fluff can be and I thought this concept was so cute also to the person requesting. I hope you like it. I love taking requests, including this one and i apprecate your kind words so much. we could all use your positivity. 💕

You remember when you first met Chan. He was the son of the Head of security that would tend to your father's every public and private safety. In a land ruled by a monarchy, these things were just necessary. You’ve been taught about the value you hold simply because of your bloodline and how you were the most precious there is, you must be protected and guarded at all costs. That’s where Chan came in.

He always claimed to be destined to take on a job much like his father, promising to protect you until the end of your days. That was a huge proclamation for an 8-year-old. He carried a wooden sword wherever he went and always had that big goofy smile on his face. It was his life goal to be strong and dependable like his father, and you believed he one day would.

That was the first and last time you saw him until he was officially appointed your personal bodyguard when he turned 18 years old. You were taking etiquette classes and studying scholarly journals of your country’s history, he trained day and night, mastering every possible martial art to exceed expectations as a protector. He was much different when he returned to you, and much stronger as well. He did not disappoint, but the light in his eyes as a child seemed to have faded, leaving a solemn shell of a man who lives to serve his master.

“Chan!”

He responds promptly. He stands by your side in an instant in proper attire, fit for both professional settings and in case he needs to be active, and meets your eyes. “Yes, your highness.”

“Bake with me.”

He blinks, “Your Highness. Would you not rather have the chefs bake something for you if sweets are what you desire?”

You stare back at him pointedly, crossing your arms, “Are you talking back to me?”

His gaze perks up at the accusation, immediately shaking his head, “No, your high—“

You laugh, doubling over at his panicked expression. “Just kidding. I wanted us to bond! No better bonding than creating delectable pastries. No objections.”

“Yes, your highness.”

He was there whenever you needed him. He never told you ‘no’ and he always did what you told him to. All done with a stone face. He took his duty seriously. He was far from who he used to be, which was probably a given, it had been around a decade. That’s when you executed a plan of action to peel away those layers, hoping to find the cute boy that childishly wanted to blindly protect you.

It was over time you saw progress, seeing him smile at every comment or the little mistakes you couldn’t help but make (you swear to him you’re normally more graceful than that) when he thinks you aren’t looking. You loved that: making him laugh. He has a beautiful smile. And the more you spent time with him, the more it feels he knows you, even bringing things you need without you even having to ask, but what was it you know about him?

“Chan.”

Right on the dot as always. “Yes, your highness.”

“Walk around the garden with me.” You take his hand before he can even answer and had him trodding beside you out of the palace.

“Please slow down, your highness.”

You practically dragged him, it was necessary given the Palace’s size.

“There is very little daylight left. We must make the most of our day. This is a royal order!” You playfully command.

“It is 3 pm, your highness!”

“Royal order!”

You walk side by side with him taking in the air, the freshly cut grass, and hearing the birds sing their sweet melody. Calling it a beautiful afternoon was an understatement. Even after living in the place you call home for so long, there is more that surprises you. “Doesn’t the sky look extra blue today, Chan?”

He softly grins. “It does, your highness.”

You turn your head, watching the smile slip out of view, “Speaking of which, what is your favorite color, Chan?”

He thinks for a moment. “Blue, actually, your highness.”

You offer him a wide grin. “That suits you very well. I’m glad I know that. How was it that you’ve protected me for so long and I never knew that?”

Chan is quiet at that, not sure how to answer.

“My favorite color is green, or was it purple?” You cross your arms in thought, a single finger tapping against your cheek, “Last week it was pink.”

“It should be yellow, your highness. You decided to wear the yellow two-piece today.”

You look down at your attire and confirm his statement, seeing the pretty outfit you properly picked out the day before with Chan. You twirl, watching how the sun reflects off the expensive fabric, “You’re right. Looks like you know me better than I know myself again, but of course.”

His eyes fill with concern. “Does that make you uncomfortable, your highness?”

“No. Not necessarily. It just feels very one-sided. You know so much about me, but I feel like I know so little about you.” You skip ahead of him and you hear his footsteps catching up.

“I apologize, your highness. I never believed it was necessary information.”

“Of course, it is. How am I supposed to trust you if I know nothing about you?” You pointed out nonchalantly.

“I apologize again, your highness. This was careless of me.”

You turn around and let him stand beside him and push him ahead, “Nevermind that. What’s your favorite food?”

He stumbles slightly but does not let the matter phase him, used to you treating him much like a companion rather than the help, “Barbeque.”

“Favorite animal?”

“Otters.”

“Favorite ice cream flavor?”

“Chocolate.”

“Least favorite thing about me?”

“Nothing.”

“Ah ha–oh.” You tilt your head. “Nothing? Seriously?”

“There is nothing to dislike, your highness, and even if there was, I could not speak out on it. However, there isn’t.”

You blink back at him dubiously, an aggressive finger pointing at his chest, “Are you lying, Chan?”

“Not at all, your highness.”

He would have no reason to lie, you thought. And like he said, if he did, he much rather not answer. You stare at him for a little longer, scanning his frame before simply shrugging and continuing your leisure stroll.

“Hmm, alright. Favorite genre of music?”

“...girl group pop.”

Your eyes widen at that, smiling from ear to ear. “No way! Which group?”

The tips of his ears cause a hue of red, spreading all across his cheeks in an instant. “Apink…”

“Ooo, how refreshing. I would’ve never guessed.”

Chan was relieved to hear such a positive and encouraging response, feeling his hairs falter just a little bit, quite enjoying your company. “It’s very encouraging when I train. They lift my spirits.”

You chortle. “That’s quite endearing of you, Chan. I feel like I’m knowing you way better already.”

“That’s a relief, your highness.”

“What else do you like to do in your free time? You spend most of the day with me, even tend to events with me, but I have no idea what you do for fun?”

He was drawing a blank. What did he do worth mentioning? “Mmm, lots of activities. Such as…”

“Such as?” You egg on.

“Such as–-horseback riding, jousting, martial arts–”

You wave the list off. “Save the pleasantries. I mean real hobbies, ones not instilled by the palace. Things that are actually fun.”

“They are fun, you highness…But I guess I do like dancing.”

You perk up once more, strutting backward to talk while facing him, “Dancing? How lovely! You must show me how you move. This instant!”

He grows flustered, knowing they were still very close to the other guards and staff in the palace. He wasn’t sure he felt about showing off his moves this publicly. “Another time, your highness. I feel rather shy at the moment.”

“Oh, but you must, you must! What do you do? Ballroom? Contemporary? Interpretive–Wha!” You feel yourself trip over a rock, falling backward in slow motion, shutting your eyes for impact, until a strong pair of arms prevent you from collapsing.

“Your highness, are you alright?”

Feeling him pull you against his chest, you stare back into the eyes of your savior. His genuine fright and concern peek through his gaze and he grips your build extra firmly. He instinctively frowns, lips quivering anxiously, sweeping your stray hairs away from your face. You naturally melt in his embrace.

You nod, sighing a breath of relief. “I am fine, Chan. Thank you.”

“Who knows what you could’ve landed on.” His gaze scans over the bed of flowers behind you, vibrant and vivacious, “they could be poisonous for all we know.”

You allow yourself to land back on your feet, turning your gaze on the same bed of flowers. “Those are dandelions.”

Chan feels redder than a tomato in August. How is he constantly embarrassing himself, he thought to himself. “Oh. Well, better safe than sorry. Your Highness.”

You chuckle, infatuated by his thought process. “You truly are something, Lee Chan. Your significant other does not have a boring life with you around.”

“I don’t have a significant other, your highness.”

“That's strange. I’d say you’re at the age to be married or betrothed. Why aren’t you?” You mention, decidedly walking side by side with him.

“Why, my work is the most important thing in my life. I do not have the time to commit myself to someone other than the royal family.”

You raise a brow, “Your father was married and had two kids by your age. If he could do it, I don’t see how you couldn’t.”

“Now, you’re sounding like my mother,” he jokes.

“She is a wise woman.”

He splays a bittersweet smile. “If I’m being honest, I’ve been given a few opportunities, but I don’t believe they can take the place of the person I hold in my heart. No one will.”

You clap your hands together in excitement. “So you are interested in dating? Tell, good sir. Who is the lucky lad or lass?”

“Someone far worthy than I’ll ever be and deserves more than what I can give them.”

You slightly shove him, finding such an assumption doubtful. “Oh please. You’re strong, you’re kind, you’re handsome…anyone would absolutely be ecstatic to have you.”

Chan felt warm all over, taking your words into careful consideration, “Do you truly mean that, your highness?”

“Are you doubting a royal?” You chuckle, “I do. Tell them. I am sure they would happily return your feelings.”

He halts his steps, and you quickly follow, curious about his abrupt actions, “...You ask me why I am still unwedded and untaken. How would you feel if I said you were the reason?”

“No excuses. You can’t use work as an excuse for your lack of love life.” You wag a finger at him.

“Not like that,” He takes your hand in his, bringing it up in mid-air, thumbing over the pristine skin of your knuckles, “How would you feel if I admitted the person I hold dearest to my heart is you, your Highness?”

A gust of wind takes you by surprise, the fallen flowers and leave being picked up with it and fall around you like a picture-esque scene in a movie. Your heart pounds a million times a minute, staring back in awe at his presence, overflowing with love and sincerity, and your eyes flutter from the breathlessness you feel in your chest and throat. You stare at Chan like the first time you were reunited with him, with pure unadulterated infatuation.

“Me, you say? Well, I’d say I was surprised, flabbergasted,…flattered.”

You feel the heat of your cheeks from the back of your free hand. “And inexplicably flustered.”

You release your hand from his grasp, the lingering sensation of his hand on your skin causing you to clench and release, and your heart easily audibly through your eardrums. You look towards the ground, finding it hard to meet your guard’s eyes. “Your choice of humor is rather brass.”

“Your highness–”

“It’s supper time. I must get going. I will see you back at the palace, Chan.”

You make your grand escape, clutching your frills, shielding your face from others in the palace with your arm before heading u to your room. You collapse against the bed, clutching your burning face in a silk pillow, yelling muffled songs of your fluster, reimagining the majestic look on his face when he confessed his feelings. Deep down you knew there was truth in his words, but how could you normally react to something so abrupt from someone so…admirable.

You embrace your pillow, push down your swelling heart, and smile. Tears of bliss fall to your cheeks and you can’t help but kick your feet like an excited schoolgirl.

You find yourself making glances at Chan when you reunite at the dinner. As usual, he does not have dinner with you but he stays by you for your own protection and eats afterward once you’ve finished. He’d look as solemn as he always did in front of other people. He took his job almost too seriously, sometimes even tasting your meal with a separate spoon in case it was poisoned. You used to laugh at his old-fashioned methods of work, there was technology for that sort of thing now, but you finally understand his devotion to his service. There more to meet the eyes, you realize.

When he follows you all the way up to your room for a night's rest, you part ways. You squirm in his presence, his confession fresh in your mind. “Good night, Chan.”

You are ready to run from him until he calls out to you, hesitancy in his voice. You meet his apologetic gaze, regretful of their last close encounter. He wishes you would not see him any differently, that he was simply a lowly guard and protector to you. His feelings towards you would not have changed regardless of your reaction. He knew his place and that was by your side as a human shield.

“Please take no more than a single thought at my confession today. Do not let it diminish my utmost respect and loyalty to the royal family. Have a good slumber, your highness.”

He retreats to his quarters conveniently not too far from your chambers, standing by the door, he gestures for you to enter your room and you obliged, watching his figure disappear behind your door. You fear that the air had changed between you, and perhaps not for the better. Your sleep would be anything but peaceful that night.

“Your highness, Good morning.”

He stands tall and firm with a smile as wide as a river. He holds beside him a fairly large trunk, gripping it by the handle.

You peer at his figure in worry, and earnest fear. “What is this, Chan?”

“I’ve decided to leave the palace forever. I realize my life was being wasted away taking care of someone who could never love me as much as I love them. So, I’ve taken on a lover of the same status.”

As if by magic a common lady appears, taking him by the arm and nuzzling his nose. They look in love, happy, and a sharp pain would shoot through your heart.

“No.” You chant.

“You will never see my face again. Goodbye. Your Highness.”

“Chan, no.”

The image of their silhouette gets smaller and smaller as they walk further away. You fall to your knees in desperation. “Chan please!”

You sob in your sleeves, hands reaching out to their shirking figures until you can only hear the echoes of your pleas.

“CHAN!”

You sit up from your bed, perspiration dampening your forehead and you are flushed to the touch. Clutching your sheets, you sigh a breath of relief that was only a dream. Soon after, your doors swing open, and a panicked guard in his baby blue nighttime attire runs to claim you, “Your Highness. I’m here. I’m here.”

His strong arms wrap tightly around your frame, soothing strokes to your hair, whispering to you it’d be okay. Your hands instinctively hold on to the fabric of his clothes, squeezing the flesh underneath, drinking in his soap’s scent and noticing how pleasant and just to your taste it was. “I know.”

He pulls you away to stare back at you, scanning you for any signs of danger placed upon you.

“I’m okay,” you reassure, “just a bad nightmare.”

“What foul image betrays you to cause such a reaction? I was ready to spar with whatever evil demon tried kidnapping you.”

He must’ve been still asleep, you assume. His colorful vocabulary, wakes you up delightfully.

“I am fine. I promise. Come, I’ll walk you to the door.”

You push him out of bed, meeting the exit, while your guard’s doubts seep out of him like a fountain.

“Are you sure? Was it truly just a nightmare? Do you need new sheets? A snack to soothe you?”

“Not at all, all good, my good sir. Good night.”

You attempt to push him out completely but he holds you back from doing so, gripping the rims of the bedroom door. “I just want to assure you’re okay, your highness.”

You fall a little deep into those eyes, perceiving the truth of his word in them. It drove you insane how a simple confession could affect you this much. You brighten up your world, open your eyes, and made you feel alive, just like a person in love does. “I am. Just…don’t go anywhere. Stay right where you are.”

He gives a confused smile, his gaze softening the same way your tone does. “But your highness, you were just pushing me away a few seconds ago—“

You tug against his shirt and your lips for the first time make contact, his plush surface meeting yours seamlessly. Your hands clasp over his cheeks and neck, languidly moving them against him. You slowly process how he reciprocates, holding you to his chest tenderly, savoring your warmth, taste, and how it all excited him. The thin fabric between your body was the only thing to stop you, and the world around you simply disappeared.

Before you both knew it, you were pulling him back into the bedroom. He’d quickly follow, doesn’t leave until the following morning, carrying out what he only imagined in his dreams, even if it was only for the night. It was the matter of his duty to keep you safe, to keep you happy. And he knew he could make you happy.

#svthub #Dino #seventeen #lee chan fluff #seventeen fluff #dino fluff #dino x reader #seventeen x reader #dino x y/n #dino x you #seventeen x you #seventeen x y/n #seventeen imagines #dino imagines #lee chan x you #lee chan x reader #lee chan fanfic #dino fanfic #seventeen fanfic

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whirligig-girl · 7 months

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Star Patrol rocket Piccard-5 encounters an artifact of the incredibly powerful White Marble Civilization. circa 2169, colorized & shipgirlified.

Commission for @foxgirlchorix, based on a render by Holly for @torchship-rpg

This is some of my best rendering work ever! These commissions do have a knack for putting me out of my comfort zone enough to continue developing my technical skills and style.

Image ID: Digital art of two ship girls in a black and blue nebula background. One girl is a very large solid white marble statue with a naked feminine form, pitted and cratered with meteoric impacts, drifting belly-down though space. Instead of a face, her head has a large hole which glows yellow-orange, with a white marble sphere held in space outside of it. A green tractor beam is being emitted towards the second girl, a Torchship named Piccard-5. She is a silver girl with her body resembling a star patrol jumpsuit. Warp drive rings circle her waist like a hula hoop. She is wearing a spherical ball helmet. She is wearing white rocket boots. She has glowing red-orange radiator panels as wings on her back. The white marble sphere's tractor beam is slowly disassembling her into individual hull sections, disconnecting her radiator wings, removing her boots to reveal the rocket propellant inside her legs, and taking her body apart. Piccard-5 is reacting with a worried or confused expression. End Image ID.

Artist's notes and concept sketches in the read more:

When this render was posted Levana immediately had the idea to make it one of a series she was planning on commissioning me for, of shipgirls based on Torchship's Star Patrol (and alien) rockets. So we quickly brainstormed how it would go down and what she could afford price-wise.

When I do big commissions with new characters where I'm creating the design without an existing OC reference, I charge extra for character design. That doesn't just go to waste! Here's the concept art page:

The White Marble shipgirl is inspired by the Eerie and Enigmatic Empty Vessels by @murmurlilies, which Levana really likes--if you look at her blog you might see one of those posts reblogged multiple times. I wanted to pay homage to the eerie and enigmatic empty vessels without directly ripping them off! The first sketch on the upper left is imagining the girl poses by breaking her arms into segments and moving them around, but that never looked quite right to me. The second is basically just a direct study of the empty vessels (with a ball head). The third is after a little more refinement--I liked the cute hair on the empty vessels so I wanted to keep the head mostly intact, and I found a way of keeping the silhouette of the jagged angular hips on the empty vessels but in a very different way! Meteoric impact damage, just like on the original Torchship render. I also used an edited version of one of the Empty Vessels drawings for the thumbnail sketch in the lower right out of laziness.

There's also a sketch of what Piccard-5 looks like when she's not being disassembled. Piccard-5 has a rounded main hull, so it looks much more like a regular space suit helmet than the frustum-shaped helmet on the Newton-2 shipgirl I sketched a while back. The Newton-2 shipgirl had heat radiators as wing shapes on her boots, but making them actual wings on her back makes the disassembly image all the more unsettling.

I changed the hairstyle on the white marble girl when I drew the main drawing because I wanted to evoke like, greco-roman marble statues, and so a curlier/braided look worked better than the cute pixie cut of the empty vessels. I'm really happy with how the final product looks. I knew I wasn't gonna be able to half-ass it with the rendering, you know, just a little shading along the edge; this required a lot of careful thought and it was a lot of fun to do! Especially where the craters interact with the terminator (line between light and dark), just like on the Moon, which I have a lot of experience sketching (see below--the following sketches were made while looking through telescopes at the Moon at night)

Here's a WIP of just the line-art:

and with the basic shading done on the marblegirl

I started with like, a cel-shaded look (?), and then went in and softened the edges, then went over it again to fix the craters. I also added the marble texture to the unshaded base layer.

For the Piccard-5 girl, I spent a lot of time trying to get the pose right. I wanted it to be a little stiff, she's in a suspension beam after all, but not too stiff? And I had to decide like, what pieces should be detached, and where should they be going. In the render, hull pieces are often displaced towards the side, but when doing that to a humanoid, it ruined the pose too much, so i avoided doing too much weird stuff to the torso and kept the disassembled pieces largely to one axis. The cross sections are hollow because they're ship decks. She's a spaceship, not a robot girl. The warp ring was suspiciously untouched by the dissassembly beam in the original render, but i had the marble girl pull a few pieces off of it in my drawing.

Probably the one thing that isn't based on something happening in the render is the belt. Like, rockets don't have belts, cosmonauts do! So that was a fun little touch.

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deathbirby · 10 months

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Hero's Relics Origins - Part 2

This is the last part, I promise.

Blutgang

Storm Dragon

I don't know what that is.

Fortunately, we have Maurice to examine!

Look at that plated back. It's similar to the blade of Blutgang. That begs the question, though. Is it armor or is it bone? I'm going to say it's both. Blutgang is made out of this bone, and it uses a few other parts of the spine.

Google Translate says that "the feel of its armor is similar to Blutgang."

Translation would be appreciated!

Oh, and Maurice also has small back sail. That points to the possibility of the Storm Dragon being able to fly.

Thunderbrand

Lightning Dragon

What the hell is this?

I guess it could be a weird horn? Or maybe it's the tail? Breastbone with ribs? Part of the spine? A fang? Thigh bone, and the spikes are actually just fangs or something that has been fused to it?

I have no fucking clue. If someone can come up with a theory, I'll put it here.

Suttungr's Mystery

Lightning Dragon

...I don't know. That green covering could be its skin, or just some regular leather. It looks like there is a ribcage when I zoom into that gap.

Hrotti

Dark Dragon

Unfortunately, there is not a lot to go off of. Tomes are always the most difficult to figure out.

Dark dragons in Fire Emblem tend to look snake-like. I suppose you could see this as the skull being flattened and split in half to make two sides of a book. The line going through the book could be where the jaw splits, and the hole with the crest stone is supposed to have an eye in it.

I'm grasping for straws here.

Failnaught

Star Dragon

Look at that muscle attached to it. I think this might be the only relic to have that.

I used Google Translate on that little bit of text in the concept art. It says: "A bow made from the bones and sinews of a dragon's fingers."

I don't speak Japanese, so I do need someone to confirm that little bit of text. Here's a bit clearer(?) version.

But that makes it pretty obvious... if it's true! It was made using the bones and tendons of the Star Dragon's fingers.

I don't know what the Star Dragon might've looked like, and I don't have anything to use as a basis. Those 'fingers' have spikes on them. I don't know any animal that might have that.

Vajra-Mushti

Snow Dragon

I wanted to say that this looks like a scorpion's head, but there are two of these (gauntlets), so that's probably not the case. It's most likely made out of the hands. The metal plating is used to keep it closed.

BUT WAIT! What if it IS the head? There is a hole that could work as an eye socket. Maybe the skull was somehow split to make gauntlets? The metal plating would be used to keep the lower and upper jaw shut.

What animal has tusks like that and is associated with snow? Best I can think of is a mammoth.

Rafail Gem

Aegis Dragon

The Aegis Dragon gets to be unique. Only the part around the Crest Stone is made out of bone. The rest of it might very well be decoration. Or maybe they come from somewhere else... Maybe the blue crystals are kidney stones?

Ichor Scroll

Aegis Dragon

It doesn't look like there is a lot of bone there? It might be made using the hand. Look at all those lines and the small holes.

Sword of the Creator

Sothis

Alright, lots of people are saying this is the spine, and I totally agree. They really liked turning spines into weapons for some goddess-forsaken reason.

BUT the argument of it being the tail also holds up! The spine doesn't have a sharp point like that. Ultimately, I cannot say for certain which one it would be. I personally am more inclined to say it's the spine.

The crossguard could be made using the pelvis, shoulder blades, or even the wings. It all depends on whether or not they got the bones from Sothis's dragon form. Oh, and I can see what looks like more muscle on the "wings".

Now what in the world is that hilt made out of? It's definitely not made out of the spine or tail, so what is it? Maybe a strong bone like the femur? The ends are more flared out than the middle.

But how?

Okay, so now that you know what the relics are made out of and what bones were used, it's time for YOU to go make some relics.

"How am I going to do that??" - You

Do not worry, my fellow human. I have gone ahead and made a guide for you! Follow its instructions closely, and you too can wield a weapon of mass destruction in no time.

How to create your own Heroes Relic!

Find a dragon. It can be dead or alive, just make sure its corpse is not completely destroyed.

If it's still alive, kill it. I don't care how you do it. Just kill it. Try to cut off a limb or go directly for the crest stone on its head. That seems to be their weak spot.

It's dead? Good! Time to cut. What? You say that its corpse is too big? Shrink it! What do mean that sounds dumb? Have you SEEN the other Relics? I mentioned this in a previous post, but no fucking dragon has bones that small. All the relics are shrunken in some way, damn it! NOW SHRINK IT!

Okay. Get your cutting equipment ready. You can use a sword, a knife, a chainsaw. I don't care. Just be careful.

Now then, onto the good part. The skin might still be useful for something like leather, so be sure to flay it first.

Start cutting away at the meat and fatty layer. Do not go too deep. You do not want to destroy the muscle layer before you've seen it first. You could still use it for something!

You've reached the muscles. Congratulations! Now, I know that the bones are the real price here, but the tendons can be very useful in some designs. So start collecting a bunch of tendons and some muscle here and there.

Is your bag full? Great! When you're sure you've got all the tendons you need, start cutting until you reach the bone. Don't worry about damaging it. Your puny blade won't do anything against it.

There, the bones are right there. RIPE for the taking! I assume that you've already picked out a design for a Relic before you started this. That means you know what bones you want to use. Take those bones.

I also assume that you know you need a Crest Stone, which means you need to get the dragon's heart. What's the fastest way to get to the heart? Well, you're not breaking the ribcage any time soon, so cut open the abdomen, right under where the diaphragm would be. You don't know where that is? It's around the liver and the stomach. You'll know when you get there. Now, you need to cut open that diaphragm and reach in there with your trusty knife or chainsaw. A human heart has a pericardium, a sac that surrounds your heart and keeps in it place. I don't know if a dragon has one, but I would still try to check if it's there and cut it away. And you don't need the veins.

While you're in there cutting away, drink its blood. You might as well. Slurp all of that shit up. You'll know you've drunk enough blood once you manifest a crest. Not manifesting a crest? Dive back in there and start chugging!

I hope you have everything you need by now. Pack that shit up and move to a place where you can quietly forge it into a weapon. How do you do that? Fuck if I know. All I know is that you need dragon remains. Figure it out yourself! If all else fails, put bone on a stick and tie it together with tendons and superglue. Don't forget to shove a crest stone somewhere in there so it actually functions!

Alright. I hope this was a useful guide for you! Don't forget to leave a 5-star review on my page!

#fe3h #fire emblem #fodlan #three houses #analysis #writing this made me feel sick #not written by an agarthan i promise #nabateans

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nhaneh · 2 months

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You ever thought about why these generative "AI" models have such a propensity towards plagiarism?

Obviously there's one half of it that's basically just down to that it's what a lot of their users are explicitly using them for - they want something that explicitly looks, or sounds, or otherwise appears at least superficially to be in the style of another thing. But there's also an underlying problem at the heart of these models that's basically about understanding - or specifically, the lack of thereof.

When you ask a person to mimic someone or something, they tend to go about doing that by trying to figure out what it is about that particular person or style that's noteworthy, how those things are achieved, and then how they themselves might approximate that given the tools and expertise available to them. You try to identify a pattern, or a series of patterns, and then figure out how to replicate those patterns within your own skillset.

The problem with generative "AI" is that it only does the first half.

See, the thing with stuff like Large Language Models and similar is that they're basically patterned on a rather simplified model of how human learning works - you have a kind of simulated neural network that processes data and builds internal models of how various elements relate or interconnect to each other not all that dissimilar from how our own brains do. The big, huge, really important difference is that the models we build incorporate this nebulous little concept called meaning.

I've made this example before but, consider my cat. My cat is, in my estimation, likely of fairly regular levels of feline intelligence - meaning she has but a single braincell that is sometimes capable of unbelievable acts of apparent intellect and at all other times is only slightly smarter than a fence post. But, the important thing for this example: my cat knows what a door is.

Consider that for a moment: my cat can not only visually recognise a common group of sometimes quite disparate objects as all being roughly The Same Thing™, but, more importantly, she knows that if an object looks like a door, it can probably be opened. There is probably something on the other side. She might be able to either open the door, or enlist a human to open the door for her.

And again, "AI" only does the first half: you can train them to recognise doors, and quite easily at that, but they don't infer any kind of meaning from it - they can match images of doors to a statistical model, but they can't do anything with that model other than looking for things that match it. There's no introspective model to consider what it means for a match to be a match, no thinking about the context in which matches are found and what it might mean to find a match in an unexpected place or situation... and I mean, thank fuck for that because none of these corporations are at all capable of even a fraction of the amount of responsibility necessary to be allowed access to the on-off switch of a potentially sapient emergent entity.

But basically, this is why they indulge in so much obvious plagiarism: without the ability to comprehend meaning, no detail is more important than the other, the presence of a black pixel in the top left corner can be just as important a detail as what a finger tends to look like - they don't generate things based on an understanding of what is asked of them, they generate based on what is statistically associated with the prompts they're given, no matter what those associations are or what they're like. It's why "text" in "AI" art looks the way it does: it's a statistical representation of what lettering looks like by something that lacks the ability to comprehend meaning - it replicates the shapes and forms, the flows and designs, but fails to recognise any of the symbols as individual objects with distinct meaning.

It's basically what learning without understanding looks like - the ability to find patterns without the ability to infer meaning from those patterns. It's finding faces in the clouds without ever knowing what a face is.

And of course, at the end of the day, the problem with generative "AI" is not actually generative "AI" at all - it's that a bunch of rich assholes with way too much money and power in society think they can, and should, just replace the rest of us with mindless automatons.

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dailycharacteroption · 3 months

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Creature Corner: Vermin part 1

(art by TyhonArt on DeviantArt)

Overview

And here it is, the last creature type of Pathfinder First Edition. This will be the last special in this format, though I’ll probably do a couple of week-long specials on how the creature types developed in Starfinder as well as Pathfinder and Starfinder Second Edition as well, so we’re not quite done. I might even do a special on templates as well.

In any case, let’s get right into it.

Skittering, rustling sounds in abandoned tunnels, the humming flutter of wings carrying a rounded chitinous form, the sudden tugging on your ankle as a previously unseen tentacle drags you down, these are the sensations that often accompany the vermin type, mostly filled with giant bugs and other simple organisms.

But what exactly differentiates creatures of the “vermin” type from the animal type? Back when we did the entries on the animal type, I pointed out that the unifying features of that type were having either a spinal column or having relatively complex brains despite being boneless, but that would be defining vermin by what they are not.

The vermin type consists of insects, arachnids, crustaceans, most mollusks, cniderians, and echinoderms, creatures that range from complex and chitinous to entirely soft-bodied or possessing radial symmetry. It’s a pretty diverse group spanning entire branches of Kingdom Animalia with little to know relationship in some places. Pretty unusual to group them together, honestly.

The vermin type also is noted for usually having the “mindless” trait, meaning they are immune to most mind-affecting effects, including most enchantment spells and certain types of illusions. However, while it’s easy to assume that these creatures truly do act only on instinct, being too “simple” for mental manipulation, complex living things are considerably different than mindless constructs, giant-sized amoeba, and lesser undead. In fact, studies on insect and arachnid behavior has demonstrated many actually have really good memories, being able to recognize individual humans and even demonstrate personalities, so perhaps it’s best to interpret it as the vermin type are far too dissimilar to other minds to use even the broadest enchantments on them.

Perhaps the most unifying thing about the vermin type, however, is that the vermin type is composed of creatures that lack internal skeletons and would be highly unusual and frightening to encounter at massive size.

The idea of giant insects, arachnids, and other vermin has been with us for a very long time, with the first film involving the concept being THEM! In the 50’s, and the first science fiction story involving them being H. G. Wells’ Food of the Gods story back in the 1900’s.

Even before that, regular-sized vermin appear plenty of times in mythology and religion, so even these so-called lesser creatures have their place. It is interesting though that the concept of dialing up their size is so recent though.

Of course, having giant bugs and the like running around begs the question of “why and how”. After all, a lot of you are probably familiar with the “square-cube law”, which when applied to biology, states that the bigger a creature is, the more stress it’s body is under just to not collapse under it’s own weight.

Now obviously in a fantasy setting like Pathfinder, the square-cube law is thrown right out the window off the bat what with all those giant cosmic horrors and literal kaiju and other titanic monsters and literal giants running around, but some still find it a stretch too far without some sort of explanation.

The easiest answer is to say that such giant-sized vermin are just a normal, ubiquitous part of the world. Meanwhile, most science fiction involving them explain it as an extraordinary external factor (typically radiation or some superfood, but in a fantasy setting you can also say magic) that either made giants of that which was miniscule either all at once or generationally. Or maybe the laws of physics are just different in the setting and the square-cube law is more of a suggestion, which isn’t entirely implausible in a setting where “altering reality through sheer force of will” is a part of the metaphysics.

Of course, aquatic vermin like crabs, sea jellies, and the like have somewhat of an excuse with the buoyancy factor, but even they can only go so far before you bump up against and trample over the borders of possibility.

Another factor you run into with giant bugs, and well, any unusually massive creature, is how they affect the food web of their home environments, which also include all sorts of other fantastical beasts, but this is mostly handwaved because it’s fantasy, not a reality simulation.

Moving on from the question of how, let’s talk a bit about the themes that come up with the vermin type. Most are giant-sized versions of bugs and critters both familiar and exotic, while others are just swarms of the regular-sized ones, and others still are fantastical insectoids that don’t quite match any real species but aren’t quite unusual enough to warrant being a magical beast.

As such, the themes of the vermin type are often the horror of being in a situation where you are prey to a creature you’d probably not notice normally, whether they be massive or simply massive in number. While this is true of most, a few vermin also play into other horrific themes as well, such as the xenopterid, which actually mimic a cloaked human before they spread their wings and reveal their clawed legs and move in for the kill.

So while the vermin type does not quite have the variety of concepts beyond Earth’s biodiversity with the photoshop scaling tool applied to it, it still can be a source of fun in it’s own right, as we’ll see as we go through the week. I hope you’re looking forward to it.

#pathfinder #creature corner #vermin #arachnophobia

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hearts4juzi · 4 months

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do you have any ideas in mind for how swap!evans scrap baby design would look, assuming its different from regular scrap baby? (since yk, its implied(?) they rebuilt themself after getting kicked out of ennard)

oh and how did/do evan and circus baby interact/feel about each other?

-cross

I DREW THIS ASK TODAY AND CANNOT SHARE THE ART BC ITS. ON PAPER. AND I DONT HAVE MY PHONE

But i thought id answer anyways, ill rb with a doodle if i can manage one (maybe in my animation class?)

first of all, he'd not be half as smashed up as liz was. he wanted to be cute and whatever, and his goal is. not killing ppl lmao.

so he goes back and gets a discarded unused circus baby faceplate from the bunker. its old and the faceplates dont move well at all (rusty and stuck together, mostly) but its not horrible. its also cracked a bit but. what can you do?

instead of wires and whatever i think hed want something softer to use for hair so i gave him some sort of fucked up string. its thick and fluffy but falling appart :( poor dude he also got other discarded animatronic concepts that william and henry kept in case they wanted to use them elsewhere. evan still has the claw on one hand but the other is an unnecessarily large paw (he cant exactly remember why at this point, but he loves bears so the paw caught his eye)

his outfit is just cloathes he found in the garbage and therefore doesnt fit well. and his torso is just the usual circus baby torso if not a bit fucked up by all the time itd been left in the bunker. its also cracked and rusty similar to his mask

his feet r just whatever he could find, but those wont even be seen a lot bc hes in the vents so who cares

the big paw is also one of the same as what molten freddy dug up to replace the rubber hose esque hands ennard had (not REALLY rubber hose but meant to look the part yk?)

as for evs relationship w cbby, its complicated. he initially wants nothing to do with the animatronic or possessing it, but when he sees liz he suddenly wants to seize control (hence bouncing between circus baby and evan)

at that time, there was still a pretty clear line between evan and cbby, bc of how hed avoided her n shit in a way bc he cant. he cant leave her lmao but he just didnt try to BE her. still while SL takes place the line does blur between him and cbby.

post scoop he finds mike and tells him about elizabeth and for a while michael keeps him seperate from the other animatronics bc yk, having someone he KNEW was his sibling and who KNEW his identity helped him and michael is the most conscious of everyone. and so he once again was aware of who he was but when michael and the funtimes both dumped him they reallty merged and it became unclear who was who (which lead to his memories getting fucked wehn he was rebuilding himself) and just overall hes weird and Not Evan Anymore. especially because evan being rejected by michael compared to circus baby being abandoned by william and the funtimes and that pain of being thrown to the curb causing anger in both that ended with them having such similar ideas and feelings that they might as well be the same entity

as far as interactions go, they really didnt interact much for a VERY long time and when they did it was quick and uncomfortable. but when evan tried to wrestle control back its started a weird silent relationshi

Circus baby did not want to get rid of him, she didnt entirely know what he was ("I still hear her sometimes" yk?) other than shed killed him and sometimes shed say things she didnt think.

evan didnt like how everything was going with elizabeth, so he wanted to subtly steer her elsewhere. however, between his own bitterness at her leaving him alone and inadvertently causing his death, and circus baby and him becoming one, he eventually began leading her to the scooper.

and evan is a lot more convincing than circus baby was.

its not until he's set free that evan is actually evan again

#tzu asks #tzu rambles #swap au #evan afton #circus baby #THIS ASK HAS BEEN HERE FOR TOO LONG!!!!!#I NEED TO ANSWER IT!!!!!!!!!!#also yeah mike fucks evan over in every universe #<33

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intogenshin · 8 months

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The Symbol of the City

I’ve noticed some interesting things in Fontaine that I want to share, but I haven’t had time to play any quests besides the main storyline so I’m doing it with the understanding that some of it might fall through. All corrections are welcome though.

This post will cover:

Fontaine history

The relationship between music and technology

The meaning of technology according to German philosopher Martin Heidegger

The influence of the 1927 silent film Metropolis in Fontaine’s narrative

How the Bible plays into all of it

Music & Technology

Firstly, the Fontaine symbol looks like 2 things:

A fountain and a retro futuristic city design.

At the same time, the design of the fountains in the city resemble a musical organ. The melusine named Blathine outside Opera Eclipse mentions that the pillars of water formed in the fountains are “like the music that plays in the background during an opera”, most likely referring to an organ.

On the other hand, a city works as a high expression of technological advance.

These two elements are closely tied to the history of the region. Remuria’s empire centered its development around the arts and intellectual fields (especially music), while Fontaine does it around machinery and engineering.

Music and technology are thus introduced as companion concepts.

It’s not the first time Genshin relates the two though: back in last year’s Lantern Rite event, it was revealed that madam Ping (alias Streetward Rambler) used to have a rivalry with Guizhong over the authenticity of music that is composed and played on an instrument and that which is produced by a mechanical invention.

In Guizhong’s opinion, while mechanisms were no substitute for human composers, they were yet capable of producing simple but fine melodies. But Streetward Rambler believed music to be an expression of the soul, an emotional enterprise that could never hope to be replicated by machinery. —Story Teaser: Echoes of the Heart

Eventually, Madam Ping changes her mind: Guizhong’s memory lived on through her invention, and madam Ping was able to express her feelings of grief accompanied by the tune in the bell she left behind.

But Streetward Rambler did not acquire [Guizhong’s bell] from Rex Lapis for the purpose of producing further funerary tunes. No, each time she rang it, it was to play the tune that Guizhong composed on it. The two once clashed over their beliefs about the meaning of music, who would have thought that with Guizhong’s passing and Streetward Rambler’s mourning, two tunes composed in discord would eventually become one harmonious composition?

That which is expressed through an instrument is not that different from that which is produced by a machine. While the musician uses their instrument to project their emotions as an extension of the soul, an engineer uses machinery to project their intellect as an extension of the mind.

Estelle: Truth be told, letting someone as feeble in body as I serve as a blacksmith is the main point of this machine. Estelle: Humans can use tools, and exquisitely-designed tools can make the impossible, possible. Estelle: Some say that all automated forgings are hollow and soulless. But if you ask me, the machine is just as much of a tool as a regular smith's hammer. Really, I would love to see those smiths knock metal into shape with their bare hands... —Semi-Automatic Forging quest

Music was the defining trait of Remuria’s identity as a nation, and technology is one of Fontaine’s.

Technology & Domination

King Remus built multiple fairways (perhaps like the pipes of an organ?) that he used to rule his nation, either literally or metaphorically with music, and conquered neighboring tribes in order to have full control of Remuria and avoid its prophesied demise:

The King, resting peacefully at the heart of the palace, listened closely to every melody and every note coming from every corner of the empire. Upon hearing any discord, the God King would correct it immediately with a pluck of his strings, bringing perfection to the symphony of his empire. To spread the harmonious symphony throughout the world, he built far-reaching fairways, which conveyed the melodies as never ending ripples from Capitolium to every corner that sat above the high waters.With his immortal fleet, Remus conquered all the islands on the high waters. Even the great dragon beneath the abyssal depths submitted to his power. Those were the best days since the end of earliest peoples, and eternal prosperity seemed so near at hand. He believed that as long as all the cities echoed with this greatest of songs, they would escape the judgment of fate and at last reach the land of eternal bliss. —The history of the decline and fall of Remuria

Fontaine is currently doing something similar, just that instead of conquering other people through the symbolic force of music, they’re asserting control over the land through first - the allegorical climate change they’re not preventing, and second - the developing of technology at the expense of the integrity, health and life of their own people:

Sir Arthur: Disaster! Disaster! At a recent public exhibition, the Babich Automated Analysis Engine suddenly exploded in a shower of gears, causing great injury and death to onlookers! Sir Arthur: Mr. Babich himself was severely injured and remains unconscious! Sir Arthur: Analysts' Guild President Marco Borja has opined that this tragedy was nonetheless an inevitable step on the path to progress, and that the Guild expresses its deep sympathies and condolences.

Musical instruments in Remuria function the same way machinery does in Fontaine, they are technology developed with the purpose to control by forcing the enemy tribes into submission or as a justification to exploit their workers.

Allegorical (or not so much) imperialism and capitalism, if you will.

These are precisely the dangers that German philosopher Martin Heidegger warned about technology in 1954 with his essay The Question Concerning Technology.

The Question Concerning Technology

Heidegger centered his work around the concept of “being” not as isolated sentience, but as a result of the relationship between a subject and its surrounding environment. He thought, for instance, that the term “ousia” (known as “essence” in philosophy) had been misinterpreted by previous philosophers and lost its real meaning, which he attributed to the conflicts of the modern era due to forgetting what it meant “to be”.

To put it simply, the phrase “I think, therefore I am” proposes the act of thinking is the essence of what it means to be, but Heidegger believed there had to be a state prior to the generation of that thought for the thought to be generated in the first place. A being exists with its environment, and that relationship between the subject and object is the essence of what it means “to be”.

However, it is hard to realize this reality of “being”. For example, when you’re doing an activity for long periods of time like writing or hammering a nail on the wall, you will eventually forget the existence of the pen or the hammer in your hand. At that point, it is not part of your reality even though it very much exists. Life in the modern era is the same, we become blind to certain parts of our existence in doing routinary tasks to survive until we interact with those parts.

So everything we perceive or interact with becomes “unconcealed”, but it’s a reality that’s defined by our own individuality, not an objective truth.

In this sense, the “essence” of technology is not anything technological, it’s not the machines or what’s produced with them, but something that goes deeper into its relationship with humanity.

Heidegger thought the essence of technology was neither a means to an end nor a human activity, but a way to reveal (or “unconceal”) reality.

Technology embodies a specific way of revealing the world, a revealing in which humans take power over reality. While the ancient Greeks experienced the ‘making’ of something as ‘helping something to come into being’ – as Heidegger explains by analysing classical texts and words – modern technology is rather a ‘forcing into being’. Technology reveals the world as raw material, available for production and manipulation. —Future Learn, The Technological View of the World of Martin Heidegger

Heidegger draws attention to technology’s place in bringing about our decline by constricting our experience of things as they are. He argues that we now view nature, and increasingly human beings too, only technologically — that is, we see nature and people only as raw material for technical operations. Heidegger seeks to illuminate this phenomenon and to find a way of thinking by which we might be saved from its controlling power —The New Atlantis, Understanding Heidegger on Technology

Machine-like People

The danger Heidegger warned about had to do with becoming a society that understands all aspects of reality through the technological lens: that both nature and people would be treated as nothing but resources to be used, like pieces of a machine.

All things increasingly present themselves to us as technological: we see them and treat them as what Heidegger calls a “standing reserve,” supplies in a storeroom, as it were, pieces of inventory to be ordered and conscripted, assembled and disassembled, set up and set aside. Everything approaches us merely as a source of energy or as something we must organize. We treat even human capabilities as though they were only means for technological procedures, as when a worker becomes nothing but an instrument for production. Leaders and planners, along with the rest of us, are mere human resources to be arranged, rearranged, and disposed of. Each and every thing that presents itself technologically thereby loses its distinctive independence and form. We push aside, obscure, or simply cannot see, other possibilities. —The New Atlantis, Understanding Heidegger on Technology

Fontaine has adopted this general worldview not only in relation to the workers, but also in the way they treat court cases as spectacles.

If Sumeru explored the question of what it means to be or what can be accepted as a living being (through stories like that of Karkata, Benben and Wanderer), Fontaine on the other hand seems to be asking what separates a living being from a machine when interpreted through the lens of technology, where workers are exploited as disposable objects and people’s tragedy is commodified for entertainment.

For King Remus also, those within his borders had to be controlled, and those outside had to be conquered.

Both Fontaine and Remuria are cities whose culture has become technologically driven.

When society adopts the technological lens —whether technology itself is involved or not— to understand themselves, their humanity is stripped from them. And do they not become just like a machine?

Gontharet: Those who always work and work will find themselves little different from clockwork machines. It is only through constant questioning and asking that we can forge a new path! Gontharet: Our history and present are all proof of this.

"All I have to do is put on my helmet, shut out the background noise, and carry out my orders." Freminet began to see himself as an unfeeling clockwork toy. —Freminet’s Official Introduction

Freminet, alongside Lyney and Lynette, is a member of the House of the Hearth, a secret Fatui organization composed of orphans who work for the Harbinger Arlecchino, who they call “father”, doing missions of espionage and other not so legal activities that more often than not risk their safety. It is unclear what exactly is Freminet’s role, but by the looks of it, he seems to feel less like a human and more like an automaton when carrying out his missions.

The City As A Symbol

(or: let’s get biblicaI)

There is no doubt that Remuria is based on the Roman Empire, but there’s another aspect to Fontaine that’s very intrinsically influenced by the Bible: the city as the epitome of human virtue and decadence.

God’s kingdom is represented as a garden. Adam and Eve are said to have wandered in the wilderness after they were kicked out. When their son Cain became jealous of his brother Abel, who was receiving God’s favor, he murdered him and was marked as a sinner.

Cain further isolated himself from God by running away and establishing the first city. A city in ancient times was just a group of homes, but what characterized it was the tall walls Cain erected as a means to protect himself from retaliation for his crime.

Cain’s city, much like Jerusalem and Babylon later, breeds a culture of violence and abuse, but also of man-made inventions like animal domestication, arts, and metalwork —aka, technology.

Those in power (starting with King David) always end up succumbing to their lowly desires, impulses and vices in Jerusalem. Babylon (which enslaved the Israelites) goes on to become not just a single city in its historical period, but the metaphorical and almost cyclical condition in which humanity condemns itself over and over again through the symbol of the city.

There are two main ways to deal with humanity becoming corrupt in the Bible: a flood or a messiah (mr Jesus The Christ for the Christians). The flood reboots everything and the messiah solution is more about accepting the city for its virtues and defeating sin through death and reincarnation, then God brings his garden into the world, so it’s like a Hannah Montana situation with the best of both worlds.

Anyway, let’s go back to Genshin:

After the first civilization was nuked with a flood, the survivors lived in the wilderness:

When the tide receded and the earth was revealed again, no cities nor civilizations now stood above the high waters. Survivors and the newborn alike lived amidst the forests and rivers, shorn of all knowledge and wisdom. Human lives were no different from those of wild animals on the earth or in the sea, driven on by the laws of nature — muddling through time with neither beginning nor end. Civilization and order were finally restored to the land named Fontaine the day the great king Remus descended upon Meropis in his golden Fortuna. He taught people how to farm and raise crops in the land, and built temples and cities with giant rocks to house the people. Most importantly, it was he who spread the beauty of music and art, which differentiated humans from other living things, causing them to see themselves as masters of all things. —The History of the Decline and Fall Remuria

Remus taught the people of what would become Remuria good things, but also reintroduced arrogance. And the cycle of Cain’s city was fulfilled again, with the nation causing their own destruction.

Remuria also is described with some kind of tower at its center, just like Babylon. And from the story of the Tower of Babel, this tower can be understood as the symbol of the city itself, the expression of human ingenuity.

I want this to be understood not as a direct reference to the biblical stories, but as a narrative parallel to an ancient story about the dangers of technology.

A city is an isolated concentration of humanity’s sins and virtues, surrounded by tall, imposing walls. A city gives rise to arts and technology, and it also breeds hedonistic desires and dangerous machinery.

I’d say the tall walls of Fontaine aren’t just to make the city look like a dam and annoy players who want to climb. And its technology seems on the right track for devastation.

Technology is not the enemy though

I said in the beginning that Fontaine’s symbol resembles a retro futuristic city. More specifically, both the symbol and the design of the city itself remind me of the futuristic envisioned city in Metropolis, a 1927 silent film by director Fritz Lang that has influenced the sci-fi genre to this day.

Metropolis is divided into two classes: the elite that lives on the surface, and the workers who live underground and produce the energy that powers the city.

(Sound familiar?)

The movie makes a point of depicting the workers moving mechanically, in a zombie like state, when they walk towards the machine they operate and while they work on them, as if they were parts of the machine themselves.

The son of the city’s master, Freder, ventures into the underground tunnels and discovers this reality for the first time. When a worker fails to operate the machine correctly, it suffers a malfunction that causes an explosion, leaving many victims behind. Freder is hit by the explosion and has a hallucination where the machine turns into Moloch, a pagan god in the Old Testament that had to be fed human sacrifices, while a group of slaves is being forced into its mouth, and then the workers behind them walk into it voluntarily.

A woman called Maria promises the underground workers that a mediator will eventually help them, as Maria believes the “head” (upper class) and “hands” (workers) just need a “heart” to communicate with each other. This mediator turns out to be Freder, who voluntarily takes the place of one of the workers and suffers the horrors of working in the machines in the flesh.

When Freder’s father finds out, he asks his local mad scientist —who has been working on a robot with human faculties— to give his creation the appearance of Maria, and orders this robot-Maria to twist the beliefs of the workers so they’ll antagonize the real Maria. Robot-Maria also shows up in the city as the figure of the Whore of Babylon, and inspires the upper class men to give in to their desires and vices.

Meanwhile, the workers are encouraged to revolt and destroy the very machines they’re enslaved by, against Maria’s ideology of unity. This destruction causes a flood that almost kills the workers’ children, but they’re saved by Maria and Freder.

The workers burn robot-Maria in the stake and later realize it was just a machine. Freder also fights the mad scientist at the top of a building from where the latter falls and dies.

At the end, Freder acts as a mediator between his father and a representative of the workers.

Ok but why was that whole summary necessary?

In essence, Metropolis is both a dystopian cautionary tale about the dangers of technology that we’ve discussed in this post, and also an allegory for the Bible (yes fr).

Maria is a Virgin Mary expy and Freder is the figure of the messiah (the “mediator”), Jesus Christ. He descends from the paradise above and suffers the pains of the people in the flesh. The mad scientist is a stand in for the devil, and Freder’s father represents the kings that continuously become corrupted in the history of Jerusalem.

Maria is who preaches true belief, while robot-Maria represents an idol of false belief that the workers are fooled by and also the sins and desires the upper class are enslaved by.

The flood that’s caused by the workers’ revolt is pretty much self explanatory in the biblical sense, you know what that is.

In the context of the industrial revolution, the narrative of the false belief aligns with what Heidegger would later address as the danger of technology, the inhuman lens through which the reality of the modern man is interpreted. The desire and sins the upper class is seduced by are of course capitalist interests.

Maria doesn’t condemn technology itself, she even tells the workers an altered version of the story of the Tower of Babel in which the tower couldn’t be finished because the intellectuals who designed it and the slaves who were building it just didn’t understand each other. The tower itself was an accomplishment of human ingenuity in her version.

Likewise, the movie closes with the hopes that this new understanding between head and hands will lead into a better, more fair society.

The figure of the messiah is not what’s important, but the ability to conciliate the power of governance and the working power in order to redirect the course of the city into an enterprise that serves humanity instead of using them like a machine.

Now, in the context of Fontaine, the energy that fuels the city and belief are more closely intertwined than in Metropolis.

The city is powered by Indemnitium, a form of energy which is produced by the belief in justice extracted from trials. We’d have to wonder, then, whether the integrity of this belief remains truthful, or if it has been replaced by the false idol of spectacle.

We know that at least one person in the city harbors discontent for the work, the spectacle and the Indemnitium energy:

Message in Cafe Lucerne’s board:

”For future generations, for our descendants, we must refuse work, refuse the trials, and oppose Indemnitium!”

King Remus in Remuria attempted to avoid the fate of their destruction, Fortuna, by conquering other tribes and establishing control over his people through a shared government, yet he ended up fulfilling the prophecy and condemning himself with those very decisions.

So I wonder if Fontaine might be in danger of self fulfilling their own prophecy should the workers of the city revolt against Indemnitium, since the members of the Narzissenkreuz Institute came up with it as a means to avoid their impending fate. And whether the people of Fontaine will survive their prophesied flood just like the children of the workers in Metropolis survived the flood the workers themselves caused.

#Genshin lore #genshin impact lore #Fontaine #long post #analysis #Fontaine lore #Remuria

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juni-ravenhall · 6 months

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asking for help from fellow eu ppl on my dash - jobs, studies, place to live.

apparently the """easiest""" way for yasmin to get a swedish spouse visa would be if both of us leave sweden for 6 months, live in another eu country together as a married couple, and then when we re-enter sweden theres apparently a eu law thing that forces sweden to give her a spouse visa since we were already living together in another eu country. (so this is a legal way for poor ppl to get around the money requirement of the regular swedish spouse visa.)

problem is, it means finding a job or uni studies in another eu country so we can move there. we have no savings, no money. either of us could get a job and then move together, if we found a job (i have basically no resume and no degree, but i am an eu citizen so i dont need a work visa, therefore could theoretically do simple work if im able within my handicap - yasmin prob needs a specialist work visa using her design degree).

uni studies would only work if its free for me in that country (eu citizen), then i could potentially study something for 6 months, and hopefully get student money from the government to pay for food (and we need to find a place with cheap rent). in general this whole concept is really difficult when youre as poor as we are (aka barely money for food rn).

if anyone of you knows that its free for me (eu citizen) to study in your country and if you could help me with finding potential uni classes and a place for us to live for a few months, and help with other questions/info about the moving process, please let me know.

if anyone has tips on jobs yasmin could apply for in your eu country, pls let us know - stuff like concept artist or other related to illustration, design, graphics. (since shes not an eu citizen your country might require her job to be specialist to get a work visa, aka use her design/art skills.) and if you could help us with questions and information about the move and finding a place to live as i said above, pls let us know too.

i really wish we lived in a world where someone of you just happen to have an uncle who runs a farm and could pay me minimum wage to help out at the farm for 6 months, bc i could do that. but those kind of things are impossible to find. i really dont know if we can succeed with this eu spouse concept, but im just trying to look into it as much as i can bc we have so few options.

the easiest option rn would be if she gets a job with her degree in finland bc its nearby and i dont even need to do anything as a nordic citizen, i can move there no questions asked. and then we would be in a eu country together + i dont have to push my disabled health to work hard + its easier to move there bc its close. but we're gonna try to look into all eu countries, even if nordics (easy move for me) or germany (i speak some german) or ireland (since we both speak english) are the most convenient options.

if my posts seem stressed and unhinged thats bc i am!!! i dont want my fiance to be sent back to a shit country at war where there is danger!!!! i dont want to be separated from her at all for any reason either!!!!! we are just having a really really horrible time about how to solve our near future!!!!

#personal

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elbarkla · 16 days

Text

Check it out everyone, 3 years of art progress! And I wrote a guide for beginners! 😊

Hi! I’m Laura, age 31. I’ve always drawn occasionally, but never really stuck with it. Frankly it stressed me out. I’d draw for a month, then cry a bunch, then quit for a couple more years. But this time I turned it into a habit somehow. I’ve been drawing near-daily since Feb ‘21 and my life is better for it. Art’s a huge part of me now; it affects how I spend my time, how I express myself, and how I see the world. I feel like a happier, more complete human being.

So here’s what worked for me. This is a guide for hobbyists (I don’t have commercial ambitions) and it may or may not work for you. But I hope you can learn something from it regardless. Without further ado, my thesis:

~ Laura’s Steps for Drawing A Lot and Hopefully Getting Better ~

1 – Manage Your Health

Know what’s bad for your art? Depression! Glad I got around to treating mine. But for real, if you lack self-confidence you might want to check your mental health. It isn’t the sole factor but it can rapidly overtake the others. Every day I see a post like “how do I improve, every time I try to draw I’m overwhelmed with thoughts I’m bad at everything and a burden to the people around me”. That’s relatable but not a healthy way to see yourself. Low self-esteem can be treated. Please consider talking to someone - you’re a wonderful, lovable person and deserve a happy life.

Also, try to get plenty of sleep and eat regular meals; it helps with everything. Exercise is worth a shot too. Going for walks is good for your mind and body. Yes it’s boring, but boredom gives you space to imagine things.

#2 – Make It Fun

You’re taking this too seriously. Yes, you. It’s just a hobby. Take the pressure off. Have fun.

What does that mean? It means you need to make art approachable. It has to be a comfort hobby you’re naturally drawn to. That means killing all thoughts of what you SHOULD do. If it makes you want to draw, go for it. Anime characters? Pretty ladies? Fanart? Furries? Doodles from imagination? Zentangles? Pencils? Digital? Do it. If drawing the “right way” burns you out, draw things the wrong way instead. You know who draws a lot? Children. You know who doesn’t draw super well? Children. Have that mindset. Draw like a child. Don’t compare yourself to others; just enjoy the process of creating something. You had that ability once and I know you can reacquire it.

Intimidated by an empty sketchbook? Don’t wanna ruin a white page? That’s OK; find something you don’t mind ruining. Grab a half-used notebook and a ballpoint pen. You EXPECT those to look horrendous. If you can have fun filling that notebook, you can have fun drawing regularly, and if you draw regularly you can slowly improve your art. It happened to me. I went from rarely drawing to wanting to do it every day. I still sketch in ballpoint now; it’s fun and comfortable.

Also, if drawing’s NOT fun? That’s OK too! There’s loads of ways to express creativity; go do do one of those. For me it was The Sims 3, then knitting, then drawing. Find something accessible and build your confidence up. The world needs bonsai trees and Minecraft castles just as much as drawings. <3

#3 – Seek Instruction

You’ve made drawing a habit, congratulations! You’ve probably learned heaps already; it’s natural to work out techniques as you go. But deducing art wisdom from scratch isn’t super efficient. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when you can learn so much from others.

You can do a paid course (great way to meet people), but you don’t have to. All the information’s free on the internet! Teachers will cover the same things in different ways or from different perspectives. There’s no exclusive knowledge; the more you study, the more overlap you’ll notice. It all comes together for a more complete understanding of fundamental concepts.

Here’s some of my favourite resources (currently all available free online)(except the Winslow one which was taken down, boo):

r/artfundamentals, ie. drawabox.com . A great starter course on how to hold a pen, draw lines, build forms and so on. You can follow structured lessons or just practice whatever you need to.

How to Draw: Drawing and Sketching Objects and Environments from Your Imagination, by Scott Robertson. This book’s the gold standard on perspective and great for technical thinkers. It gets VERY advanced but there’s basic stuff to learn from as well. If the textbook intimidates you, try this excellent video playlist by Dan Beardshaw. He walks you through the same concepts in a simple approachable manner. Vital information if you want your work to look 3D.

anything by Andrew Loomis. He’s an icon for a reason; the Loomis head is a standard art tool to this day. I also enjoy the anachronistic career advice (“all advertisers will pay for a well-drawn head” or whatever it was). Here’s the ones I’ve read and enjoyed:

Fun with a Pencil

Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth

Drawing The Head and Hands

Creative Illustration (my current fave, great for composition)

Classic Human Anatomy in Motion, by Valerie L. Winslow. Hot take – people who say “learn anatomy” to beginners are idiots. SO MANY fundamentals come before anatomy if you wanna draw good-looking characters. You’ll get better results studying proportion, form, gesture, shapes and composition first. But if/when you want to learn bones and muscles, this is the book for you! It’s probably overkill, but I loved the breakdown of facial muscles and how they create expression. Top-tier reaction image material.

Proko!! Fabulous Youtube channel. Not only is Stan a great teacher, he invites on other artists too. Just go to his search bar and plug in a keyword; you’ll always find something helpful. I recommend his channel if you want to draw humans (loads of gesture, forms, proportion, anatomy etc.), but there’s a video or two on everything. Some of my other favourite videos:

Mind-Blowing Realistic Shading Tricks. Simple effective intro to light and shadow, I still go back and learn from it.

How to Draw Dynamic Shapes – FORCE Series Part 3. So compelling I bought the book afterwards. Blew my mind, instantly improved all my shapes and in turn my composition and gesture.

Painting Skin Tones and How Light Affects Color. Marco Bucci’s a genius with colours, he explains value and saturation in such fascinating ways.

Digital Shape Carving with Scott Flanders – good companion to the shading video above, teaches dramatic silhouettes and cel-shading within a really interesting workflow.

Google. Any question. Throw it in. Someone’s made a video or reddit post about it. You’d be surprised! I swear, the number of times I’ve typed “composition tips” or “digital watercolour clip studio paint” or “how draw horse head”.

Remember, take it easy. Don’t burn yourself out. Back off if you feel the tears creeping in. Study should supplement your drawings, not replace them. If in doubt, revert to step 2 – “bad” art is better than no art.

4– Study Life

If you did step 3 you’re way ahead of me on this one. USE REFERENCES. Draw things from photos (or real life if possible). Fill your brain with visual information. Here’s a thread I made for sharing references of humans.

What if you prefer to draw from imagination? That’s fine – try a hybrid approach. Doodle whatever comes to you, then look up references and try again. For example I’ll doodle a bear, then draw from photos of bears, then doodle new bears using the things I learned. It’s fun and also a good way to test your knowledge. You may also enjoy combining different references; eg drawing animal fusions, combining poses with an outfits etc. It gets easier to do the more you practice.

Between art pieces I keep a balance between drawing from imagination, drawing from reference, following art lessons, and studying other artists. Speaking of which –

5 – Study Art

Ever heard “Don’t draw anime until you’ve learned anatomy?” or “Learn the rules before you break them?” I strongly disagree with both of those statements. Fundamentals are great but there’s never a point you stop learning them, and studying life won’t teach you how to stylise. That’s why you also need to learn from your favourite artworks. This gets easier/more efficient as you build your broader art skills, but you can learn styles at any point of your art journey (see – step 2). In fact, it makes study more enjoyable, since stylised art can look better and feel more “you”. You already know what you want to create– why not start now?

Let’s take anime as an example. That’s a huge genre with loads of variation. So, what’s your personal taste? Round and cute, or sharp and serious? Choose your favourite shows and study how they do it. Observe their lines, shapes and proportions. Then try it yourself. Make fanart. Not only is replication good art practice in general, it’ll teach you a bunch of new tricks. For original work, pull from loads of sources, the more diverse the better. Work in your love for Silver Age comics or medieval tapestries or German expressionism. The more places you learn from, the more unique and personal your style will be. Your art becomes a visual scrapbook of all the artists you love. I think that’s beautiful. <3

6 – Find Community

Art friends! Best thing ever. You can bond over your shared obsession, commiserate over tough parts, and learn about art together. A lot of my drawings are in-jokes exchanged with my BFF. I’ve known them from childhood (lucky) but apparently adults can make friends too. Fandom spaces are great for this; many Discord channels have a dedicated artists’ zone. You can also try r/sketchdaily or challenges like Mermay/Inktober if you want a sense of community.

If you don’t have art friends (yet), that’s OK; parasocial works too! I like watching “Draw With Me” content on Youtube. It’s great to put on while you’re creating, especially when you don’t have the energy for something educational. Not only is it inspiring, you can learn tips and tricks along the way. And of course, you can never go wrong with Bob Ross.

7 – Be Interesting

The very first step was to manage your health. In a way, we’ve looped back to the beginning. Because no matter what you do, art begins and ends with who you are. You can practice fundamentals 12 hours a day but if you never live your life, you’ll never make interesting art. No one cares for artists whose only character trait is how hard they grind. So go be the most vibrant version of yourself. Take up weird hobbies. Make weird friends. Seek new experiences. Question the beliefs you grew up with. Read books for a while instead of drawing. Develop your principles. Embrace what makes you different. Survive the worst year of your life somehow. Learn what makes you thrive. Your art won’t be for everyone. But it WILL mean the world to some. And to me, that’s the whole point of doing this. Good luck, fellow artist. The world is your adventure yet to come. I believe in you. <3

#art progress #art tips #art tutorial #art resources #art guide #artists on tumblr #elbarklaart

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euclyta · 10 months

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Well since you asked (and I've kinda been wondering about it) — what's chocobo's mystery dungeon like, especially compared to the pmd series?

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

im putting this under a readmore because i (redacted)

so i gotta give a bit of context first: there is an entire spin-off series of final fantasy games all protagonized by a tiny little chocobo. i bring this up first because there were two dungeon crawlers on the playstation- these set up the regular returning elements of the chocobo series (namely some main characters), and it even runs with the trend of having cid in every ff game!

the specific one i love is Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon, it was on the wii and its a very basic dungeon crawling, PMD-esque game, with a hunger meter, monster houses, etc. i think the thing that sets it apart from other dungeon crawlers gameplay-wise is that it has a job or class system much like mainline final fantasy games do, in which you unlock access to eight different jobs that completely change up the playstyle AND the difficulty of the game due to their own niches (my favorite job for example, white mage, is very high difficulty until endgame)

for me the main reason why i want more people to know about it and try to give it a chance even if its just via an emulator is the story. i might be biased here but i first played this game when i was 9 years old and it still lives rent free in my brain to this day (im 21 now for context)

to not give any spoilers, the main premise is that chocobo and cid are treasure hunters looking for a gemstone; upon finding it, they're suddenly transported to a town in seemingly a completely different world where the citizens constantly lose all their memories everytime the belltower rings

the very first night they spend in this world, a meteor crashes in from the sky, turning out to be an egg from which a baby is born. this baby then proceeds to somehow start bringing people's memories back by allowing chocobo to enter their minds

this is also why i think its such a cool concept, because it uses memories and people's minds as the main set up for dungeon crawling, even representing memories as scattered puzzle pieces. and everytime you are inside someone's memories, you can hear snippets of their thoughts as you go along, ending in the full memory being fully restored when you exit

there are a ton of memory dungeons, one for almost every npc in town, and they introduce a thing called "special rule" dungeons for non-story ones where you have to play with certain gimmicks the whole way through (1 hp, perma blindness, enemy gauntlet, stuff like that). and every single one has those snippets of lore and foreshadowing you gotta piece together, little by little, to understand the truth behind the town

for the characters, the cast is very colorful and i think everybody genuinely feels very human. granted the voice acting isnt the best but it adds so much to the charm of it. plus the designs and all the official artwork there is is just breathtaking (ive only now been noticing there are a few elements in my own art that are subconsciously inspired from this game's artstyle)

i HAVE to mention raffaello here because now that i have a bigger understanding of how tropes and storytelling work, i can say for sure that he is just so, SO crazily well written; its not all in the text, but all the worldbuilding comes together eventually and that's when it really hits

and of course i gotta bring up the soundtrack- its almost entirely comprised of arrangements of older final fantasy songs and each and everyone of them is MAGICAL. its remained as one of my favorite soundtracks for years, so much that i realized that the official disc release was incomplete and went out and put together all 42 songs in the highest quality i could to make sure it doesnt become lost (this is a very reocurring theme with this game in particular)

i want people to play it and i want to talk about it. partially its because this is my favorite game. but also because its been THIS close to being a major case of lost media. there are SO many things that have been lost to time because they were japan only or they were overwritten on the internet (including the entire japanese chocobo series website portal, thats like three different unique websites with tons of never saved artwork they nuked). so much of it i still remember but i have zero way to access it anymore and it eats me from the inside out.

its a common theme of things being lost to time with this game but its also incredibly sad and funny because the entire theme of the game is things being lost to time. ouroboros. time is a flat circle.

and... here is where i come in talking about the remake- chocobo's mystery dungeon everybuddy and why i heavily recommend the original over it

so... the original wii game had a japan only ds port with some new elements and stuff. but the main thing with it is that they changed a LOT of the story; same plot, different execution, to fit in with a ds format. the problem with this is that the remake was based off of this version and not the original one, which leads to a LOT of serious and emotional moments being gutted and sped through.

the gameplay itself is fine, they actually made it even more pmd-like by adding a companion system, and they upped the difficulty a lot if you dont know what youre doing. but the story changes genuinely kill it for me if im being honest. they retconned what made me sad about the ending at the cost of everything else (and even then im angry because that took away from the intensely emotional ending that still had me crying like a baby LAST WEEK)

in general though. i just think this game is so beautifully crafted. this game originally came out in 2007 and it still holds up SO well. the graphics are very cute and stylized, but everything is so detailed that every single part of the world feels lived in. the town is very small but i think its why it always feels like coming home. huge recommend and i refuse to die until ive convinced at least one person to play it through to the end (its been 12 years and im still trying)

#long post #i am so sorry for the essay i love this game #please anybody who reads it. please try it #please #im genuinely so alone

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hopeymchope · 1 year

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Hey!

The Junko ask you did reminded me of my own concept where the THH cast use magic alongside weaponry that may be related to their talent or character. Do you have any ideas for everyone except Makoto and Junko, as I already have stable ideas for them?

More specifically,

Leon, Mondo, Sakura, Aoi, and Mukuro are more physical (warriors,)

Kyoko, Byakuya, Chihiro, and Celestia are more magical (mages,)

and Sayaka, Kiyotaka, Hifumi, Yasuhiro, and Toko plus Jack are balanced between physical and magical attacks.

I'm SO sorry for the late reply! I saved an in-progress answer to this a few weeks ago and then uh... I went through some surgery and my S.O. had surgery and basically I lost all track of the fact that this happened.

So. Uh yeah. This is probably too late to add useful suggestions to your concept, as you've likely already cemented a lot more characters in the interim. EVEN SO: Can I offer you an extremely late answer in this trying time?

Obviously Leon has to have a bat or club, right? Even though he'd probably resent it at first... ? Lol. But he'd be excellent at it all the same. Might feel cool to incorporate some loud singing/yelling in a very "punk rock" style into a couple attacks, too. Or is that anachronistic to your setting?

Mukuro can use literally anything, but I feel projectile weapons are the most logical thing for her (besides just a combat-centric knife, which feels too bland/basic). I don't have any idea how medieval OR modern you're making this reality, so: Perhaps she wields a gun, a crossbow, or just a regular bow?

Sakura needs to be the character that ONLY uses their fists and actual martial arts moves. There's always at least one of those in RPGs, y'know. The "Black Belt in Final Fantasy 1"-type character. Or the "Chie in Persona 4," if you prefer.

It's easy to picture Chihiro using some sort of visual equivalent to computing/hacking. Therefore, Chihiro could cast a spell that makes squares and/or cubes appear to float through the air (representations of screen pixels and/or algorithm geometry), which expand into a fractal image that reaches over and builds itself up THROUGH the target, for example, causing damage by impaling them with the fractal. If you don't know what I mean by a random computer-generated fractal, just imagine something like this rapidly growing out from Chihiro's spell to attack the enemy:

5. Pretty easy to figure out Genocide(r) Jack/Syo would use small blades such as scissors or, if that's not logical for your setting, then some knives. But when she's regular ol' Toko, how about she whips out a notebook and starts frantically writing with a pen, only for the words to float off of the page and then fly right into her opponent?

6. I've been thinking about how Asahina might fight, and I'm not sure what to do with her. I figure she might use her legs a lot like a Chun-Li-type because swimming has built up her kicking strength. And we see her practice a few punches in DR3, though we only see her fight using some kind of pipe/rebar/metal thing when confronting Juzo. I imagine she wouldn't use a strictly defined "style"; it'd be more of a hodgepodge of homemade attacks she concocts.

7. Mondo? Punching/boxing and would probably also wield a tire iron/axel. Simple.

8. Hagakure is similarly easy. He can conjure (y'know, do some quick prayer or swirl a hand over an artifact or something) some kind of visible magic (I'm picturing a generic swirling smoke or beam of light; pretty standard stuff) using his crystal balls and other weird possessions. .... Hopefully his attacks are better than 30% effective :P I don't have a vision of how he'd work with performing physical attacks, though... ?

9. I don't know how to handle Kyoko's "magic." Is there some way to visualize the "magic" of someone just being intelligent and using logical deduction? I can't quite grok how to do it. We do know she has some physical fighting skill, however, because of the time she fought Masked Junko off in Naegi's room in DR1. And I can picture how she'd work as a physical fighter: extremely minimalist. She'd so reserved as a person that I think her fighting style would be similarly reserved. She would stand there with her arms crossed, looking unready, and would barely move when actually attacking/fighting. You know, just casually stroll up and then swat an enemy with the back of her fist. Or just stand still and barely sidestep to dodge, then pivot before sending out a very basic forward kick to hit the opponent. It would almost look lazy, but it's actually extremely calculated. Y'know?

10. Maizono would have to have some magic involving music, naturally. Y'know... in season 1 of the Magia Record anime, we saw another Sayaka — Sayaka Miki — use music-based magic for healing. She can sing/hum/play songs that generate visible musical notes as a form of magic. I think it'd be cool if Maizono could do the same kind of thing ... plus maybe she swings a mic stand around and hits people with it like Rise does in Persona 4 Arena?

And that's... kind of all I could conjure up from my brain. There are still four people on your list there, and I don't seem to have any ideas on how to work them. But hopefully you do. Or will! :)

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simowis · 5 months

Text

Discussing 'A Fire Upon the Deep' after reading - with Javik

<Tines>

Spoilers everywhere ↓ *translated by Deepl

Tines：

He noticed that I loved the Tines. After all, I’d just figured out the concept of the Tines. I enjoyed the vividness of the author's descriptions, the switching of points of view, the silky smooth way in which the concept of the Tines was introduced…

"Wait!" he said. "I don't think they'll be able to compete with single organic beings like us. They need at least four 'packs' to form an intelligent soul, that's a big weakness." He paced. "But these 'group minds' can observe far more than we can with their radios, and it can manoeuvre multiple devices at once while wielding up to eight weapons. It would have to be reduced to only three 'packs' on the battlefield before it could possibly be disabled, a formidable opponent indeed." He turned his head, "HF sound wave! It must use its radios to disperse into small units, jamming them will turn it back into individual organs. The physiology that relies on high frequency vibrations to think outside the body is also its great weakness."

I flipped through the book, pointing out that they were still in the Middle Ages, the potential of their race left much to be imagined: such as the triadic work cycle model depicted in the book; those massive walls of bodyguards composed of endless tines 'packs'… He lifted his head, "Yes, with cloning they can achieve immortality by simply replacing 'packs', much easier to achieve than us monoliths. They can also use it to make multiple copies of themselves." Yes, but we have cloning technology too. I was thinking about Shepard's clone… "Is that Shepard's own personality?" Javik denied it, Our monolithic clones can’t achieve that with enough accuracy, but the Tines might have been able to."

I can easily imagine them preserving their own personalities by replacing cloned 'packs' and freezing the 'packs' with their own memories, much easier indeed than the technology of human cloning. There were examples in the Middle Ages of them living for hundreds of years - 'Pilgrim' and 'Woodcarver', a race that could touch immortality too easily. "Living too long is not a good thing." Javik's eyes flashed dangerously, "Class entrenchment, corruption, monopolies - a society like that won't last long. Eternal domination is nothing but a nice fantasy. Even our leaders need to be replaced with new blood on a regular basis."

It occurs to me that their packs are only capable of animal-level thinking, does that inhibit the Prothean’s ability to sense touch?? Interesting, very interesting. Javik, can you envision the cycle of the Tines ruling the galaxy? He shook his head, “I don’t see them having that potential, and they probably don’t taste good, with so little flesh. We Protheans would not approve of their ascension. But their social structures are worth maintaining an observatory in orbit around their home planet." There was some awkwardness in the air as he avoided the subject, so I resumed my reading.

The medieval Queen of Tines was an artist, she could paint and sculpt, so… what style of music might they have? Did the diaphragms of the 'packs' produce any frequencies or particular rhythms? Javik scoffed, "Sound is their outward thought, do you think they'd turn themselves into a bunch of animals just for the pleasure of sound art?" He laughed in a deep voice. "Hmmmmmmm… that's a good point. All that crazy 'electronic music' in your human pubs could easily kill them!" This Prothean suggested to me in the worst possible way that 'music' might not exist for the Tines.

"Zones of Thought"

The concept of 'Zones of Thought' in this book was so vague that I didn't enjoy it very much. How well Tines was written, how badly the 'Zones of Thought' was written, and I couldn't immerse myself in that aspect of the book. As with the 'Blight', it is vague and unclear as to how the ultimate threat will be subdued. His knowledge of this can only be based on my reading experience. But he reviewed it anyway.

"This super-intelligence, 'Blight', can take control of human-level organisms, make the Skroders rebel… It works a bit like the Reapers." He leaned against the sink, "But it's just high-level AI without a body, at least we don't have to use our bodies to fight it. And the Internet isn't much of a problem for us Protheans, either." Yes, you Protheans don't trust machines. You don’t rely on them too much. I sort of wanted to retort, but… ah… the author had not simply described exactly how 'Blight' infiltrates and controls humans. "Exactly, I need to know how they do it first, so I can figure out how to counter it." He said: "Let's stop this, there's no point in discussing it further. Besides, no one in my galaxy can exceed the speed of light." Well, don't you think it's possible that we could use the 'Zones of Thought' to control the Reapers? I asked. "If it does exist, then the Reapers are the ones who did it to us first." Javik closed his eyes. "They're far beyond our technology."

#A Fire Upon the Deep #fanart #Tines #book review #crossover

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toothedmammal · 1 year

Text

Okay so, I've never listened to a single episode of The Magnus Archives, but I've seen quite a few posts about it cross my dashboard over the years. So I know... something about it? Maybe?

Anyways I'm caught up on my regular podcasts and I'm bored so I figure I'll give TMA a shot, but before I do I want to record my vague idea about what it is for posterity and also cause it'll probably be funny how incorrect I am.

...

Jonathan Sims is a guy who's job it is to listen to people tell him about weird fucked up shit that happens and decide if it's paranormal or not. Jonathan Sims is gay, and he has a crush on his coworker...who's name I forgot, but I'm just gonna call him Jeff

Jonathan Sims is very unhappy because he doesn't believe in the paranormal, but he has to work for a paranormal job, and also he's being pestered by avatars of abstract concepts like "The Hunt" or "Fear" or "Spiders"

Jeff is less melancholy because he believes in the supernatural and thinks it's cool to work with spooky stuff. He might also be some sort of reanimated dead body, idk if that's canon or just an AU I've seen some of art of.

There's an old lady who's an avatar of something, maybe spiders? She laughs at Jonathan a lot.

Jonathan eventually becomes an avatar of... something? He's got a lot of eyeballs and he has to worry if eating people's memories is halal or not. Again, possibly just a headcanon.

Everyone ships Jonathan and Jeff, and writes about them being a cute happy ending couple, but also the podcast itself is a horror podcast so like, at some point the writers had to make a statement to the effect of "Hey so we know you like these characters but keep in mind this is a horror story we're writing, those don't always have happy endings, so uhhhh please don't dogpile us for doing a "bury your gays" trope cause that's not what we're doing and any tragedy that may or may not happen is genre appropriate Kay?"

Idk if either Jeff or Jonathan ever died, or if the podcast is even still going.

And that's about what I know about TMA from seeing random Tumblr posts.

#the magnus archives #idk

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metroidprimepics · 2 years

Text

More miscellaneous observations, mostly from Corruption.

Prime etc.

Since there may be Switch remasters of these games on the way, I’d like to clarify that this blog is not an accurate representation of how these games look on console.

For one, I do bump up the resolution, which makes smaller details much clearer. (The base textures are unchanged, though I believe there’s a fanmade HD texture pack for Prime. Which admittedly could kind of use it.)

I also often tweak the lighting in post - usually brightness/contrast, sometimes white balance. (On top of that, I turned down bloom by 10% on Corruption, because it’s a bit much.) This is about as much I would edit a photograph which I took of real life.

Finally... Keep in mind that these games were originally meant to be played on a component video output hooked up to a CRT, which (as you may or may not know from personal experience) is a very fuzzy experience.

That being said, all I’m doing is adding extra polish - Prime games look decent under any condition. (My actual play setup is trash...) So these remasters, provided they exist, have a lot to live up to.

Moving on.

This is what it looks like inside the morph ball. So... now you know...?

Activating two cutscenes at once means they play simultaneously.

It seems Gliders were originally going to be used as platforms at some point. It is very difficult to get on top of one without noclip, but as you might hope, Samus can totally ride on them. Whee!

There’s no issues with sliding off or anything, either - you’re clearly meant to be able to stand on top. (Wish the same was true for my sad attempts to boost onto Quadraxis’ flying head without stunning it first - water off a duck.)

Apparently there’s even an unused scan image depicting this exact scenario, which more or less confirms it.

This applies to some midsize harmless flying enemies in the rest of the main trilogy as well, specifically the drones in Sanctuary and the cargo carriers in Skytown, both of which speedrunners ride to get out of bounds. Perhaps they’re using the same code...? Or maybe those are programmed like “crates that move” and the fact that they’re also flying platforms is a coincidence, who knows. It’s all platforms, always has been.

Different game entirely, but bear with me. These statues in front of Elun reminded me of this statue in Prime 1, specifically with the robes/armor. Might be a coincidence, though, especially since the main series basically ignores Prime.

Echoes

I love Echoes, but I don’t have much to say about it this time.

Spoopy.

The regular human corpses are about the same size as Samus, but when Ing-possessed they get... bigger. (Morph Ball is about half her height - when unmorphing, she comes up to the armpit.) So that’s weird and kind of gross to think about!

Corruption

The MPT version of Corruption seems to have significantly better load times than the Wii release, though it takes longer to boot up at the start.

The Pirate Phazon storage that Dark Samus reconstitutes herself in during the opening cutscene (left - sorry for terrible angle, it’s hard to fight the cutscene camera) isn’t one of a kind. It’s the same room model as the Phazon storage/processing room that you pick up X-Ray Visor in much later (right).

...gonna chuck that one on the right in the queue, actually...

It’s really impossible to overstate just how tiny humans* are in the Metroid universe, compared to almost every other species. Other humanoid species are generally at least as tall as Ghor. So if you’re looking for an in-universe explanation for all these conveniently morph-ball sized vents... Uh, I guess those are still pretty small for most species.

*or, in this case, Gandrayda badly impersonating a human - though she’s the exception, being about the same size as Samus anyway. I wouldn’t be surprised if they use the same model.

Speaking of Gandrayda. This isn’t a new discovery, but I figure it’s worth mentioning that there’s some otherwise unreleased concept art in her body texture. Seems someone was using it to colorpick...

Feeding my statuary addiction with these busts on Bryyo Fire.

This save room in Skytown has a mysterious solar system model. My pet theory is that it’s home. Like, the lore on the nearby Cyrlic tree is that this Chozo tribe bioengineered it and brings it from place to place (you also see this exact species on Tallon IV). So maybe if that tree is from home, this model is depicting home? I don’t know.

There are a lot of assumptions there and an environment artist probably just stuck it there because it looks cool. Just kidding! This is approximately canon.

While it seems odd that the HUD is a 3D element in the world, it does let it interact with lighting, like this orange glow. It’s subtle, but a nice touch.

...now that I know you can make it invisible I’m turning it off though... Invulnerability cheat doesn’t work in this game, so whatever happens happens I guess!

Quick look at the dying parasite queens in the Skytown Xenoresearch Facility elevator wall. Which is... You know. A completely normal place to store your dying specimens.

If you’ve ever wondered where exactly in Samus’ body her Phazon growth is located, wonder no longer: it is located above whatever Leviathan seed she happens to be in! (In this case, Bryyo. Blue things on the walls.) Hope that helps. 😔

In the drop cutscene, two Spire pods are loaded at the same time, though you’d never see them both with a normal angle.

You might have to take my word for this, but the text in the biohazard scan is once again basically keysmashing. All homebar too, very classical. There’s one word on here, “extra”. And some numbers, 123123, @@@, etc.

Finally. (deep sigh) Shoutouts to the artist at Retro who decided to give the Reptilicus about 6 polygons of lizard bulge. Maybe they can hang with the artist at Mercury Steam who kept giving a bunch of ZDR critters detailed bolas.

#misc_

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