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patricia-taxxon · 7 months

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So, I watched that response stream that DeadwingDork made about my furry boinking video, here it is if you're curious.

youtube

By some accounts, this gentleman seems like he means well, with regards to pronouns he pulls the "when in doubt, they/them" gambit, which is partway there. If he finds this, I'll politely let him know I don't use they, just she & it. Thanks!

I have good reason to believe he began this journey in good faith, but over the course of the video he slowly gives up being charitable, and it's very frustrating to watch. There's a few key moments of miscommunication I noticed that I'd like to clear up.

DeadwingDork and I got off on the wrong foot very early on, and part of that's my fault. I start the video openly lusting after Garth Alphandomega, and this put him on edge. This might be an ideological difference we can't get past, he says that Garth is "Just a wolf" when I personally think he's quite different from a wolf. After that, I do the joke where I say "If the opportunity presented itself I would fuck my-" and cut to The Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe, but he didn't have the context to understand what I'm saying by cutting to that album in particular, so he thought I was jokingly saying I would fuck my dog. He spends the rest of the stream with that initial impression of me lusting after what he perceives as literal animals, it's kinda the initial rock that starts the avalanche and closes him off from understanding basically anything that I'm saying, until the end, where he's convinced I've just spent 43 minutes coming out as a zoophile.

This might just be a difference in artistic philosophy, like he interprets Alpha & Omega to be about wolves whereas I interpret it as being about people through the aesthetic lens of wolves. Metaphor isn't just for abstract art movies, after all. Garth walks on 4 legs, but he has enough obvious persistent human-like traits both visually and behaviorally for me to understand him as a person delivered via wolf. For the same reason, he is disturbed by my lusting for Shoukichi Pompoko, because he interprets that movie as literally being about tanuki. I think this the main reason the concept of a character being "simultaneously human and inhuman" completely whiffed on him. He skimmed over my segment on how Leo can be both a wolf and hispanic & didn't understand the relevance, because I don't think that contradiction can be resolved in his head.

The most frustrating part of this stream is the way he clearly picks up on a lot of the overarching subtext that I'm putting down, but by that point in the video he doesn't have enough faith in me to interpret it as being put there intentionally. He treats the connection between my special-ed dog training and my current animal identity as an unintentional self-report, when it isn't. There's this *maddening* segment where I talk about Pom Poko for the first time, and he... honestly quite accurately picks apart the picture I'm illustrating about alienation, but he handwaves it away in favor of his horrible mangling of the exact literal sentence I am saying at that moment.

He says:

"There's clearly a story here, but it's being buried. There's a lot of stuff that's leading towards... 'oh, you watched this movie and this movie and your parents did this and your fuckin' teachers did this, and that's why this is happening.' That's like the fuckin' undertones of this video, [but] the main takeaway is supposed to be that this movie... I dunno, makes you f.. is supposed to feel like how fuckin' animal people feel like they're... whatever, I don't, I don't... whatever."

He grabs at the subtext, the story I'm obviously telling with the surface level anecdote of my experience seeing Pom Poko when I was young. I say obviously, because he and his chat both understood it. But then he discards that, assumes it was unintended, and importantly, he doesn't have a good answer for what I'm actually saying divorced from that. Because... what's even left after you remove the subtextual story I'm telling with this anecdote? The anecdote itself? Of course he's empty handed.

Other notes:

He can't decide whether I'm an over zealous recruiter trying to call everything furry, or that I'm a gatekeeper trying to force robust definitions of 'furry' into the general lexicon. This isn't very important, it's just kind of funny.

He is dismissive of me saying I won't report news if my only source is Kiwifarms, but he doesn't really give a good reason for it. I am having trouble summarizing his argument for why I should have referenced a website whose users doxxed me. He hilariously suggests that I should negotiate with them to have my address taken down, as long as I'm not a "lolcow" about it. I'll be charitable and say that I don't think he's thought this through very much.

He hates that I "compare autistic people to animals," when that really just doesn't mean anything on its own. A comparison is a comparison, a follower of mine pointed out to me they could say that trans people are like cockroaches & it could either mean they are doggedly resilient in the face of harsh circumstances or that they are pests that need to be exterminated. I meant something specific by using an animal metaphor to describe my autistic identity, and it transcends the literal reading of "calling autistic people animals."

He derisively calls Echo a "gay furry sex game" when it simply is not. I'll forgive him for this because he hasn't played it, but Echo isn't porn, it's a horror game. There's sex in it, and it has the framework of a dating game, but it is far from the main appeal. I'm not saying this to elevate Echo above the degrading label of "porn," because Adastra is definitely porn and it's almost as good, just not as easily recommendable to outsiders.

He thinks its commendable that Sean Booth bought my album, which is nice.

Overall, I don't think DeadwingDork is outwardly hateful, but he is quite gullible. He accepts hate speech at face value and buys into narratives useful for hate movements. There's echos of trans groomer panic, that old "you're the reason people are transphobic" chestnut, and of course, using Kiwifarms as a news source. He said he came into the video knowing nothing about me and had no reason to be approaching me in bad faith, but he clearly doesn't trust me enough to think the main rhetorical thrust of the video was intentional.

bad stream lol

#mini essay #long post #cilantromixture #Youtube

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dailyadventureprompts · 3 months

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Tableskills: Making a Game of It

Recently I learned a bit of an unspoken truth that I'd brushed up against in my many years of being a dungeonmaster that I'd never seen put into words before: If you want to liven up whatever's going on in your adventure, figure out a way to engage the players in some kind of game. It's simultaneously the best way to provide a roadblock while making your player's victories feel earned.

This might seem redundant, since you're already playing d&d but give a moment of thought to exactly what portions of d&d are gamified. Once you learn your way around the system, it becomes apparent that D&D really only has three modes of play:

Pure roleplay/storytelling, driven by whatever feels best for the narrative. Which is not technically a game, nor should it (IMO) be gamified.

Tactical combat with a robust rules system, the most gamelike aspect.

A mostly light weight skills based system for overcoming challenges that sits between the two in terms of complexity.

The problem is that there's quite a lot of things that happen in d&d that don't fall neatly into these three systems, the best example being exploration which was supposed to be a "pillar" of gameplay but somehow got lost along the way . This is a glaring omission given how much of the core fantasy of the game (not to mention fantasy in general) is the thrill of discovery, contrasted with the rigours of travelling to/through wondrous locations. How empty is it to have your party play out the fantasy of being on a magical odyssey or delving the unknown when you end up handwaving any actual travel because base d&d doesn't provide a satisfying framework for going from A to B besides skillchecks and random encounters (shameless plug for my own exploration system and the dungeon design framework that goes with it).

The secret sauce that's made d&d and other ttrpgs so enduring is how they fuse the dramatic conventions of storytelling with the dynamics of play. The combat system gives weight and risk to those epic confrontations, and because the players can both get good at combat and are at risk of losing it lets them engage with the moment to moment action far more than pure narration or a single skill roll ever could.

I'm not saying that we need to go as in depth as combat for every gamified narrative beat (the more light weight the better IMO) but having a toolbox full of minigames we can draw upon gives us something to fall back on when we're doing our prep, or when we need to improvise. I've found having this arsenal at hand as imortant as my ability to make memorable NPCs on the fly or rework vital plothooks the party would otherwise miss.

What I'd encourage you as a DM to do is to start building a list of light weight setups/minigames for situations you often find yourself encountering: chase scenes, drinking contests, fair games, anything you think would be useful. Either make them yourself or source them from somewhere on the web, pack your DM binder full of them as needed. While not all players are utterly thrilled by combat, everyone likes having some structured game time thrown in there along with the freeform storytelling and jokes about how that one NPC's name sounds like a sex act.

A quick minigame is likewise a great way to give structure to a session when your party ends up taking a shortcut around your prepared material. Oh they didn't take that monster hunter contract in the sewers and instead want to follow up on rumours about a local caravan? The wagon hands are playing a marble game while their boss negotiates with some local mercahnts, offering to let the party play while they wait. The heroes want to sail out to the island dungeon you don't have prepped yet? Well it looks like the navigator has gone on a bit of a bender, and the party not only need to track them down but also piece together where they left the charts from their drunken remembrances as a form of a logic puzzle.

Artsource

#tableskills #tabletop inspiration #dnd #dm tip #dm tips #dm toolbox #d&d #dungeons and dragons

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weepylucifer · 7 months

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Disco Elysium if it was a Hollywood Blockbuster

(inspired by the trailer by @brainrotdotorg)

Harry has to have a glowup arc where he regains his faith in his job and ability to be a good cop. The police isn't criticized here apart from maybe some handwaves at "a few bad apples" rhetoric. In the climactic moment, the phasmid appears and tells him it is his duty and his destiny... to reform the RCM

Because we don't have time for a nuanced take on addiction in this 90-minute movie, the narrative just turns on a dime halfway through to portraying Harry's alcoholism as rugged and badass instead of pathetic, or he suddenly stops drinking when he gets his groove back, with no withdrawal effects shown. The whole thing about speed helping him be better at his job doesn't factor in; Harry drinks and does drugs because he's sad about Dora and there's nothing more to it. All he needed was to buck up and focus on being the best cop in all of Revachol

Klaasje is portrayed as a one-dimensional scheming femme fatale. Her backstory doesn't really come up. She's dumbed down so that Harry can triumph over her, and is also genuinely attracted to him for some reason, "I am Sherlocked" style

Ruby is either cut entirely, or she's genuinely a predatory lesbian and that's it. If the latter, she shoots herself in the head in front of Harry and Kim and they make a MCU-style "Well that happened" quip about it

No political quests! We don't have time for that. Actually, both communism and fascism are only mentioned once in a backstory dump as stuff that happened in a bygone era. If anything, the film ends up really riding for moralism by complete accident

The film makers don't really know what to do with Kim, so he gets reduced to a guy that stands around and delivers snarky one-liners

The Hardie Boys are in one short interrogation scene, not quite enough to make casual moviegoers care when half of them are gunned down

Fan-favorite characters such as Cindy, Cuno or the Speedfreaks can be seen once in the background of a group scene, but have no lines (you KNOW hollywood couldn't handle the Cuno). It's announced on the director's insta as "a little easter egg for eagle-eyed fans"

Joyce has a way more active role, but also her character turns into an utterly flat "milf girlboss" type who gives Harry and Kim direct instructions on what to do, Madame Director style. The movie writers pat themselves on the backs for being more progressive and feminist than the source material. Also she has nothing to do with the mercs, they just sort of... appeared. Don't think about it too hard! It's stressed repeatedly that they're "rogue agents" and it's really nobody's fault that they're there

Evrart is a corrupt mob boss and that's it. He will be played by a skinny actor in a fatsuit. He also doesn't help find Harry's gun, Joyce has someone retrieve it offscreen so she can gravely and meaningfully hand it to him just in time for the mercenary tribunal

The Deserter just kinda being a shitty sad old man would be too anticlimactic for our summer blockbuster, so he is rewritten to be some kind of evil mastermind. Maybe he even directly communicates with Klaasje and tells her what to do, again "I am Sherlocked" style

The tribunal absolutely does end with RCM backup triumphantly arriving to save the day, led by Jean who underwent a mini-arc offscreen about putting his differences with Harry aside because at the end of the day, they're both cops, and goddamn it, cops help each other. He dramatically takes the wig off and chucks it on the ground to signal his character growth, and everything

No homo-sexual underground thought. The Smoker on the Balcony is allowed to show up in one scene, where he flirtily waves at Kim and Harry. Kim nods at him. Disney's first gay character--

There's a moment where Kim talks to Jean, expressing doubt about Harry. Cut to Harry doing something goofy across the room from them. Jean briefly glances at it, shakes his head, turns back to Kim and says gruffly: "He's a loose cannon... but he gets the job done." This is supposed to be a good thing

#posts by me #i have more i could do this all night #remember those blogs that were like ''[x series] if it was written by moffat''?? i guess this is DE if it was written by moffat #disco elysium

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thespoonisvictory · 4 months

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it's just so fucking fun to listen to brennan talk about magic bc it FEELS like a lecture about organic chemistry or thermodynamics. there are things that are universally true and people have spent countless hours and resources proving. but why do they happen? girl we don't quite know yet.

magic is a science that wizards are building an understanding of, but early wizards did a lot of handwave-y assumptions and "yeah we're just going to assume that works and will continue to work to keep building on it so we can cast fireball and teleport." and now wizards like soft and stone were going wait hold on wait you skipped some steps. and that's what modern chemistry research feels like to a tee

#wbn #worlds beyond number #also the way it talks about the group research with soft and stone is real as HELL #soft making a wild statement/assumption casually and stone being like you can't DO that what do u MEAN

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wannaeatramyeon · 10 months

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You hit the nail on the head! I‘ll ask for more professional assessment: honest opinion on Crystal?

Following on from my ramblings about Sally Park. Oops! Edited to add in Zoe too.

Well written female characters in Lookism? Uhh...

When the bar is at an all time low, it's really not hard to step over it.

At this point, I've been pavloved to think that any female character that expresses a personality trait other than 'simp' is pretty good. Simp is fun when it's part of a list of characteristics (Zack, Ryuhei). Not so much when it's the only thing.

Long live PTJ, the greatest feminist. Anyway.

Female characters I like

Mary Kim

Love her. Empress of 2 seconds. Queen of my heart.

Surprisingly kept a platonic relationship with Vin Jin, showing quite a healthy mixed gender friendship. Sassy and smart. Loyal. Good taste in men (Jace). Is shown having a life and interests outside of a man.

On my hands and knees praying that PTJ doesn't ruin her. Kinda glad she hasn't appeared in a while so she is kept away from his incessant need to turn everyone into a love interest.

Lua Im

Once we got over the odd Johan panels, which I heard the Korean audience didn't like and I'm quite happy about, she's fine. And it's not that I care that much about Johan staying a single dog-dad, I just needed a coherent reasoning/build up why they would be interested in one another.

Lua has potential.

Sourcing intel, even impressing the likes of Gun? A little Muay Thai knowledge? Jake and Jerry scared of her? Lol. Ok. Good. Let's build on this.

Just please don't white knight her.

Crystal Choi (meh)

And Ms. Choi, because anon specifically asked. I really don't mind her? I know she's meant to be anti-Lookism but still judges people based on their looks eh. That's fine. Pretty realistic actually. Whatever.

She can be a bit bitchy for no reason. So can I. Handwaving all that.

What I do take issue with though, is her so called title of Business Genius. Please show me the chapter where she actually does something to earn that title besides the one where other people ooh-ed and aah-ed over her in the meeting with DG.

Wow she's sooooo gorgeous. Ok good for her. If that's the route they're taking her character then at least OWN. THAT. SHIT. Use her beauty and looks to sign deals and get what she wants. GOOD. DO IT.

Zoe Park (also meh... Wait)

Sorry anon, I think 'really well written' is a bit of a reach... She does have some decent character development, starting as quite a flighty, shallow girl and then showing that she has a heart of gold, liking both Daniels and. Huh.

Wait. You're right. She is pretty well written. She's selfless and kind and loyal to her friends, putting up with Logan's bullshit. There's enough of a character arc for her from the Zoe we're introduced to at first.

And I do like that she's good at maths too.

Wasted potential

Minseong Kang (Jake's momma)

Appreciate this is the older generation and from a much more conservative culture. Saying that, I am so over the slighted and bitter housewife rotting at home while her big powerful husband cheats on her.

And then some sort of marriage redemption cos they pop out a kid. Whatever. (Sorry Jake bb, I love you).

If you were going to do that, give me the most toxic red flag shit where they are constantly at each other's THROATS. Show me how they are equals. Can't live with or without one another. That's the good kinda shit.

Leonn Lee

I just. What the fuck was this.

A girl in Burn Knuckles? A group that reeks of testerone and (positive) masculinity? Show us why she joined! Show us why she stays. SURPRISE. Main character trait?? Having a crush on Vasco.

She could have been SO interesting. And she obviously trains, why not get her to fight?

Hate for irrational reasons

Joy Hong

Listen, she's not really in enough or significant enough for me to really feel one way or another about her. BUT. The reason I HATE her is because I was trying to write a headcanon involving everyone and then I got to Joy and I was STUMPED.

Sub in a plank of wood, and it would have the same depth of personality.

Truly. Who is she apart from Jay's sister and a Daniel simp? At least everyone else has something.

Others

I don't really think about them. Sera Shin has potential I guess.

And of course a special mention to Daniel's momma. She's not exactly a unique character, but who doesn't love her?

LET. THEM. FIGHT.

Lastly. Why can't we see women fight? Like the men's fights are realistic LOL. Ultra instinct? Smashing through walls? So why are women fighting men outside the realms of this.

And yes yes. Men are SoOoOoOo strong. But can they take a kick to the balls?

Are you saying Gun Park has been training his dick and balls and would be able to eat a hit there? He wouldn't go down like a heap of shit??

HUH. TELL ME THAT.

In Summary

Mary by and large is pretty well written. Lua has improved.

I don't care much about anyone else.

And I wanna see Gun, Goo, Sammy, Vin etc. get kicked in the balls in a fight.

#is this my most disjointed rambling yet? quite possibly #if you made it to the end you sincerely deserve a medal #sorry if i've completely forgotten about any female character development loooool my bad #and sorry every time I refer to the women as females it makes me feel incel-y #lookism #lookism manhwa #lookism webtoon #lua im #mary kim #crystal choi #leonn lee #minseong kang #joy hong #wannaeatramyeon

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alienguts · 2 years

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Fan Club (Harley Quinn x f!Reader)

Summary: Harley introduces her amazing girlfriend to the Birds of Prey

Warnings: Fluff, Harley squeeing over Y/N, PDA, mentions of food

Request?: Requested on AO3

A/N: I'm still trying to get the hang of writing F/F stuff 😕

Harley was unusually cheery as she sat in the diner with Dinah and Helena. She was normally quite peppy and cheerful on a regular day, but this time she was almost bouncing in her seat.

“Harley, what did you invite us here for?” Dinah asked while Helena looked out the window.

“I wanted to introduce you all to someone important,” Harley said excitedly.

“Important?” Helena asked, turning her attention back to the table. “How ‘important’ are we talking?”

“Well, the most important person to me,” Harley said, her pale skin flushing as she turned her eyes down to the table.

Dinah and Helena exchanged a knowing glance just as the bell over the diner door rang.

“Hey, you can’t bring that in here!” one of the waitresses yelled as a hyena on a leash bounded through the room, followed by a girl trying to hold it back.

“She’s here!” Harley squealed in delight and leapt to her feet. The hyena made a beeline for her, pulling the girl along with it and knocking a few diners into the tables.

“He had to come in as soon as he knew his mommy was here,” the girl said breathlessly.

“Because he’s a good boy!” Harley said as she ruffled the hyena’s furry head. “Aren’t you, Brucie?”

Bruce licked Harley’s face and tried to jump onto her but was held back by his leash.

“Um, are you going to introduce us, Harley?” Dinah said from their table.

“Oh! Yeah, I was,” Harley said as she linked arms with the girl and led her and Bruce over to sit down. “This is Dinah and Helena, Renee couldn’t be here because of cop shit. Ladies, this is Y/N, my amazing, beautiful, super hot girlfriend.”

Y/N waved awkwardly, or as much as she could with Harley clinging onto her.

“Nice to meet you,” she said shyly.

Dinah knew that Harley had started seeing someone, but she didn’t expect them to be like Y/N. Harley was so lively and colourful while Y/N seemed to be more subdued and quiet. Opposites attract, she figured.

“So, Y/N,” Dinah started. “How did you and Harley meet?”

Y/N opened her mouth to speak, but Harley jumped in for her immediately.

“Oh my god it’s so cute, we met at the library!” Harley said, pronouncing it as ‘lie-berry’.

“Library, sweetie,” Y/N corrected. “It’s where I work. I thought she was coming in to borrow movies but it turned out it was to talk to me.”

“Aw, that's sweet,” Dinah said as she and Helena watched Harley rest her head on Y/N’s shoulder.

“Guys, she’s so smart, she knows so much about so many things!”

“Babe, you have a PhD,” Y/N said.

“Oh that old thing doesn’t matter,” Harley said with a handwave. She must really like this girl if she’s willing to say that, Helena thought, knowing how proud Harley was of her qualifications.

After a lunch that mostly consisted of Harley gushing about Y/N through mouthfuls of food, the four ladies went outside to say their goodbyes for the day.

Or at least, that’s what Dinah and Helena were about to do when they turned around to Harley lip-locked with Y/N as she tried to keep Bruce by her side. The two of them seemed to be oblivious to the fact that they were out on the street and were contained in their own little bubble of love. Helena cleared her throat to get their attention but was ignored.

“Harley?” Dinah piped up.

“What?” Harley said, her lips loudly smacking against Y/N’s as she broke away. Her mouth was smeared with red lipstick but she clearly didn’t care about her makeup at the moment.

“We’re gonna head off,” Dinah said.

“It looks like the two of you could do with some privacy,” Helena added.

“Oh, we’re fine,” Harley said as she nuzzled her cheek against Y/N’s.

Y/N, however, looked like she was about to hide, obviously not used to Harley’s public displays of affection.

“It was nice meeting you two,” she said to Dinah and Helena and smiled warmly. “Hopefully Reneé can meet with us next time.”

They all said goodbye and went their separate ways, Harley and Y/N hanging back a little longer before heading off home themselves.

“Thank you for meeting my friends, baby,” Harley said as she tightly hugged Y/N.

“No problem, I had fun,” she said as she returned the hug and kissed her on the cheek.

Harley took her chance to capture Y/N’s lips again, tasting leftover maple syrup on her mouth and stroking her head gently.

“I hope they end up loving you as much as I do,” she said, her lips not moving away from hers, desperate to continue kissing her.

“We’ll see,” Y/N said. “But can we go home now? People are starting to stare.”

“Let ‘em stare!” Harley said. “I want people to know that I swept the hottest girl in town off her feet.”

Bruce whined from next to them and nudged Y/N’s leg.

“I don’t think I’m the only one who wants to go home here.”

“Alright, fine, we’ll go. But not because this big baby said so.”

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purity-town · 5 months

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No update today...because I just graduated from college!!! It's been a wild weekend with my graduation ceremony and moving apartments and all that, but from here on out I'm officially free!

We're also just past the third anniversary of Purity Town! I had started working on the comic towards the end of my first semester at college, during one of the lowest points of my life -- so suffice to say, I'm so glad to see how far we've come since then, and many thanks to everyone for sticking around for so long and making this such a fun experience to work on!

And with all that, after ages, I've finally got ask responses all typed up under the cut!

And thank you for reading!!!!! Seriously, it makes me so so so happy to see people enjoying this comic so much -- I'm getting to draw things and get excited about my lore ideas and present NPC interpretations and OCs and it's wonderful that other people are just as hyped about it. I adore Chris and Andrew a lot and I'm glad other people do too!

Haha, yep! The Dryad gets to see That Guy again after 450 years, the townsfolk get to see the equivalent of a mythical fairy show up to bless their town, and Andrew has to deal with the Literal Actual Dryad in town and up in his business. Everyone will be happy about this and there's no way it will end messily!

I've definitely thought about it! Particularly having her being Andrew's maternal grandmother, and then working elements reminiscent of that into Andrew's mother's design -- I even have a general idea for how she looks based on that, though I don't have anything to show for it as I haven't tried properly drawing her out.

I think there are several interesting hooks that could come of it, depending on how you spin it. Big problem with all of that being that, at least off the top of my head, there's hardly any in-game lore surrounding the nymph -- she's just someone (some creature? a type of creature? a unique being?) that exists.

I did see a note on the wiki pointing out the similarities between the Dryad and the Nymph's designs, but I'm not totally convinced that's intended; they just happen to both be showing a lot of skin. The definition of "Dryad" including the word "Nymph" nudges me towards them being related, but I'm still just...not sure. Maybe Nymphs (or Nymph, singular) are a handful of Dryads who were not outright killed in the war but instead mutated beyond recognition by the eldritch powers they fought against? Much to think about; I'm open to ideas if anyone has opinions on the matter!

Here you go! And a sta.sh link again in case of Tumblr-image-quality-shenanigans.

Thank you!!! The Aether is an incredibly fun location to draw in general; it's so strange and magical and gives me an excuse to add stars and sparkles everywhere. Add in the Shimmer and it's just- such a delight, haha. It's rainbows and starlight and it was really interesting translating the in-game side view we get of the Shimmer pond to the top view in the comic.

Thank you :) This was quite the semester, and working around other folks' schedules for groupwork and sudden project requirements changes and so on and so forth left me with a busy and unpredictable schedule. But I was able to wrap up the semester with solid finals and a great GPA, so it worked out in the end -- and now I'll finally be settling into a more regular work schedule. No more all-nighters (hopefully)!!

I’ll admit that I haven’t really thought about this much. If anything, I’ll probably handwave it a bit to be more general -- main reason being that there are plenty of reasons for someone to be on edge during a Blood Moon, and that can be an interesting thing to explore without making it into a “haha menstruation” joke.

(Also, considering the Zoologist transforms during a Blood Moon regardless of moon phase, I think the idea of the moon warping the mind and that being amplified during Blood Moons in general is a more interesting take. But even if you remove that element, Blood Moons are scary and characters being snappy or on-edge is reasonable given the circumstances.)

I don’t have a good response to this bit, but please know that it made me laugh quite a lot.

First off -- I’m so sorry for taking so long to answer this ask; I hope you’ve gotten good info elsewhere in the meantime but I’ll add what advice I can give! Here are some general tips below -- some may be more useful than others depending on your situation and approach to drawing, but I hope it helps in some way or another!

Start small. Purity Town started as a 2-page mini-comic, and then expanded into a 10-page chapter as I got used to the comic-making process and decided whether I wanted to stick with the project or not. Purity Town ended up snowballing into a larger narrative comic rather than the "small comic snippets accompanying a more typical fanfic" as I had originally been thinking of, but starting small helped me ease into it nonetheless. By the time that I had finished the first chapter, I had gained enough experience working with comics to feel comfortable/confident enough to continue on to chapter 2, and things just kept rolling from there.

Pace yourself. I'm quite slow at drawing, so I generally do my best to set aside time every Saturday just to work on the comic, as well as working on it whenever I feel like it over the week. This keeps me from burnout (and repetitive strain injuries). Importantly, having a set update schedule also helps me remember to actually work on updates, as leaving me to my own devices = never getting anything done (see: how long it took to answer this ask). However, many folks do just fine updating entirely on their own time, so take this one with a grain of salt and figure out what works best for you!

Plan ahead. This applies more to making longer, narrative-focused comics. Because comic-making is so time consuming, every page should count. You don't need to have the entire thing written out before you begin (see again: burnout; it's also nice to have some level of flexibility with the story to see it grow alongside your skills), but planning out at least the current story "segment" is a big help. I like to script out the current chapter, starting with a pile of out-of-context dialogue snippets and overarching chapter ideas and boiling it down to a proper dialogue script with notes for panel ideas. It helps a lot with figuring out how long the chapter will end up being and lets me freely move events around until I'm happy with how they fit together, rather than doing it all on the fly.

Do what you can to save time. If you're a digital artist especially, look into what tools your art program of choice has to help make your illustration process smoother, like paint filling tools or vector lines. If you want to re-use backgrounds or character art, then do so! It's okay! Do whatever makes you enjoy what you're doing and happy with the end result!

Stay organized. This was touched on in a number of the other points, but it's so important that I'm giving it its own slot. I make liberal use of folders and layers -- personally, I use three layers for lineart and every layer has at most two colors. Text gets its own folder and special effects have color-coded labels. My layers are always organized in the same way and I keep often-reused materials (like the lineart for Chris' staff) in separate files for easy access. Of course, the specifics are dependent on how you draw, but this has made a world of difference for me personally.

It's okay to experiment and change things. Figure out what works for you -- some folks do comics entirely as sketches or lineart without coloring, you'll see book-style vs. scrolling/vertical webcomics, and all that. It's okay to swap things up if you find that something isn't working out. Don't get too caught up in everything being "perfect," just experiment and see what makes you happy.

(Side note, but if anyone here specifically uses Clip Studio Paint and wants to talk about platform-specific details like brushes or using certain tools, feel free to send me a message on Tumblr/Discord about it. I am by no means a master of Clip Studio, but I am at least familiar with the particular tools I frequently use and can give info on them!)

Based on personal experience, a random cave halfway down to Hell. 90% chance that it’s completely enclosed and filled with random monsters, haha. Luckily the Dryad was there to stop him!

#purity town #not an update #pt asks

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kaaragen · 2 days

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So, I've been mulling it over, and I now have my considered thoughts on Tales of the Empire!

First Morgan and then the bit that matters.

I thought Morgan's segment was entertaining, and I liked learning about another Dathomiri clan. But for real, she's never beating the 'damn we shouldn't have killed Pryce' allegations XD. And that's the problem. The whole thing had a feeling of canon welding, as the airplane rattles apart at 30,000 feet. Perhaps most egregious is the explanation for how she met Thrawn. Apparently, she's behind his favoured TIE fighter design! Does she have any knoweldge of engineering, orbital mechanics, astrophysics or anything else that might enable her to look at a TIE fighter and say 'hey, I know how to improve that!' If she does, the show has no interest in telling us.

Then there's the whole wanting revenge thing. Why? Againts whom? For what purpose? The only thing she takes revenge on in the episodes is a forest, and what did that do to her?

Okay, now the main event: Barriss.

I set my expectations really low, so nearly anything would pass it. Acknowledging that, I'd say this was about the best I would have hoped for given the constraints of canon, Filoni and such. It was really nice getting to see Barriss being the idealist, sticking to her values and having the courage to say no when it became clear where the Inquisitorious was going. And she never fully bought into it, showing she has learned from her prior experience. As a friend pointed out, even when she choked Dante her eyes never turned yellow.

Seeing her as a Jedi Master at the conclusion also felt special, and not going ot lie, I did shed a small tear when I saw her free and at peace with herself after so long. And I love the fact that she defeats Lyn, not with badass lightsabre moves, but by being relentlessly kind and compassionate. Or, essentially, allows Lyn to defeat herself and so open the path back for her. It's a rare display, in Star Wars, of a character actually using the Force for knowledge and defence and not attack.

I loved the implication the reconciled with Ahsoka and made her peace with Luminara. And I don't mind those not being shown on screen; honestly I'd prefer they get time devoted to them in a novel or a comic, rather than 2-5 minutes in what are some already quite rushed episodes.

I'm 80% sure she's dead, and honestly I'm okay with that. She died to save a child and redeem a nobody (in meta-terms with Lyn), and there's something truly Jedi in that. There's something beautiful in that.

That said, there are two caveats.

The first is on Ahsoka. I'm getting increasingly frustrated with the way that Barriss' importance to Ahsoka is getting airbrushed out of the story. Because it is an important component. What sells Ahsoka on leaving the Order is not just the Council's lack of faith it's because she agrees with Barriss. Not in the method she chose, but in her critqiue yes. How can she not? She's just seen her good friend, a paragon Jedi in her eyes, fall to Darkness in fear of what the Order was becoming and she never suspected a thing.

And from Barriss' side the persistent question is why did she target Ahsoka and no one else? I'm starting to suspect that Filoni has worked out that only reasonable answer to this one is Barrisoka one and because he's allergic to writing relationships (a friend pointed out how much he seems to dislike physical displays of affection in his stories), but also specifically with reference to Ahsoka.

The second is on the bombing, and murder of Letta and clone troopers. Like, I'm happy that eleven years later it's been decided that having the Muslim-coded girl become a terrorist was a bad move. And I'm happy to take Barriss' gentle portrayal here as something of an apology note. But ultimately, Filoni made that decision so he doesn't get to employ fanfic rules to handwave it.

And the thing is, addressing it in the text would make the arc stronger. Because it's a fascinating flaw in Barriss' character that, for all her idealism, piety etc. when push came to shove she was too afraid to take the role of martyr and got someone else (willing or not) to do it. We need to see her grapple with that fear and work through it. We do see a strain of this (she does initially turn a blind eye to Lyn's massacre of the vilalge), but it's not really developed. Because it makes her triumph at the finish all the more important.

Barriss at the finish is not a Jedi Master because she can dance around lightsabre blades and spout wisdom laced in sarcasm (though those are cool!). She's a Jedi Master because she's transferring (so it's implied) her life energy to heal others. She's a Jedi Master because she allows herself to potentially be sacrificed to guide another back to the Light.

She's a Jedi Master because she's finally surpassed her fear and let go of her final attachment.

#star wars #barriss offee #barrissoka #tales of the empire #sw tote #tote spoilers #spoilers

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homunculus-argument · 2 years

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If you have to pull something out of your ass to plug a plot hole, and know that no matter what it is, it's going to be stupid anyway, it's better to just turn it into a joke. You can handwave some things to the reader if you make it one of those "hey sorry about that" handwaves you'll do when you bump into a stranger on the street and you've already walked too far away to stop to talk - you've aknowledged that you messed up, and the gag will make up for it.

Have a character lampshade it, if you need to. You can 100% have someone in the crew go "wait a fucking minute, if you knew somebody who could fix this whole thing this whole time, why wasn't she in the project from the start?"

And someone sighs like "we meant to, but she quit and has refused to work with us again ever since we told her she can't eat popsickles in the lab." The one who asked the question looks around to everyone who apparently knew this story all along, and they just look back with apologetic shrugs, aknowledging how absurd that is.

Then, cut to this Cool Ace Character Who Could Fix This All Along, working on the solution, while eating popsicles in the lab.

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black-bentley · 20 days

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I loved your TC tag games answers, but I was of course shocked at your nomination of my boy Alec for 'most deserving of a worse fate'!! So, now that I have mentally prepared myself, please can I have all your worst thoughts on Alec! I can take it 🥺

Ok so. I will preface this by saying that I don't actually dislike Alec! But I feel like there are places where he gets off lightly compared to some other characters in the book, so here we go...

It's fairly apparent he's been unfaithful to Sandy (and, possibly, to Ralph - given that comment about his "claustrophobia") but that's very much just handwaved away. And compare that to how Madge is portrayed! A degree of that is Laurie's (*cough* Renault's *cough*) distaste for certain types of women, but it's pretty noticeable.

He could have warned Ralph earlier that Bunny couldn't be trusted and potentially saved a fair bit of grief, given he knew that Bunny had clearly been reading Ralph's diary and Ralph didn't know.

He's just... not all that nice to Sandy. Obviously Sandy is written in a way that doesn't make him immediately endearing, but I do feel quite sorry for him - he's clearly got good reason to worry about Alec having his head turned by someone else! Like I said in my answers, I get a bit of a feeling that Alec keeps him around so he's always got company when he wants it, but the commitment doesn't seem equal on both sides and it doesn't feel like Alec respects him much.

(I am now hiding.)

#asks #the charioteer

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comicaurora · 2 years

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can we get some lore about the secret world of the urban fantasy thing? specifically what mythologies it incorporates and where it is in relation to the human world?

So in order to make this world work I had to force my brain to stop trying to do hard worldbuilding for Every Myth And Folklore In The World. Kitchen sink urban fantasy works best when it's a little bit handwaved because it is frankly impossible to build a hard magic system that accounts for every story that's ever been told, and anyone who tries tends to be inadvertently hugely offensive to large swaths of humanity by trying to make their religious history conform to this one specific model. So I didn't do any of that.

Instead, the bulk of this secret-world worldbuilding takes the form of Realms, which are other dimensions of all different shapes and sizes with unique intrinsic natures. Some, like the Fairy realm or the Goblin Market, broadly resemble reality; others, like Cocoon, are realms of shifting chaos or intense energy that are best not traveled to. There are a huge number of realms and new ones are being discovered all the time. There are realms for every major underworld or otherworld (Valhalla, Tír na nÓg) as well as a realm for undeath itself. Realms sometimes overlap, and sometimes overlap more strongly in certain locations or at certain times, and beings sometimes enter earth from other realms. This is how I can justify almost any folkloric element I want.

Realms are mostly important because of the way magic works in this setting. Basically, magic is like the internet. It's either sourced from the realm the mage is in (typically earth) or it's sourced from a specific other realm, typically one that the wizard has a personally hardwired connection to. Not every realm provides helpful magic, but some of them do. Magic can be channeled directly, or it can be collected in the form of objects/creatures/parts of creatures from that realm that possess its intrinsic magic within them; this can be used for the crafting of potions and artifacts.

The major realms explored in the stuff I've got so far:

Earth, natch. The native magic of earth is elemental, and is consistently available to mages unless they're pulled into another realm. It can be used to throw fire, grow plants, shape storms, sling stone, breathe underwater, etc etc. It's solid and reliable but has something of a hard upper limit on power; great feats of magic must be accomplished by a lot of mages working together.

Dream, a realm of illusion. Dream mages are very common because the dream realm overlays almost the entirety of the Earth realm. They draw power from sleeping humans and are typically stronger at night, and are weaker in rural areas with lower populations. Dream mages can do stuff like astrally project and craft illusions or glamours, though they aren't the only mages that can do this.

Cocoon, the realm of transformation. All shapeshifters have their origins rooted in this realm - the werewolf curse as well as voluntary shapeshifters like selkies and animal brides like swan maidens. The cocoon realm is not easy to physically enter, which is for the best - the longer one stays, the more it changes you. People that spend too long there or channel its power recklessly risk becoming "not-quites" - entities that are not quite anything. Not quite a deer, not quite a person, etc. This realm is absolutely ancient and very alien; most of its uses are either channeled through carefully-controlled artifacts or very rigidly-ruled enchantments. The realm is visually incomprehensible, but every witness agrees on one thing - while there is no sun and stars flare and wink out at random, Earth's moon hangs in the sky, motionless at its zenith, only changing phase.

Fixed Stars, the celestial sphere. This realm covers divination and prediction. It is a serene realm that technically has a place to stand, but it's basically a single point of ground; the observer's purpose is only to look up at the stars. In this realm, every constellation is alive and can be called - and this is not limited to officially recognized constellations. A sufficiently creative fixed stars mage can summon anything they can internally justify a constellation for. The spirits of individual stars can also be summoned.

Crystal Spheres, the other celestial spheres. This realm centers on the sun, encapsulated by eight transparent crystal spheres. Each sphere is set with a single crystalline colored disk embedded in its surface, representing one of the eight non-Earth planets in the solar system. These crystal spheres are more than decorative, and serve to protect the central sun from some hungry dark monster that lurks far outside it. Apophis is one name for it, and even scientists in the realm of Earth have observed the gravitic force of some large, undetected attractor outside the solar system, calling it Planet X. It is, of course, a part of this realm, and that means its power can be drawn on. Practitioners of this realm magic are "radiant mages" and can either draw on sunlight directly or draw on sunlight filtered through one or more planetary lenses. Each lens has different properties, making this a sort of swiss-army-knife of magic. Its power is boosted in daylight and sometimes by visibility of specific planets, and is broadly accessible from most places on earth, but it typically has a rather low power ceiling unless the mage is channeling unfiltered sunlight, which comes at a cost - sunlight is the raw power of the Sun King, ruler of the realm of the Crystal Spheres, and the Sun King is an asshole with a tendency to possess whoever channels his power unfiltered. Each planetary lens confers a helpful sort-of-alchemical effect at the cost of raw power - Mercury's light can soothe and heal, Venus's light can enchant or harm, Mars's light can cause heat and pain, Jupiter's light forms shields and wards, Saturn's light strengthens and toughens its subjects, Uranus's light calms and clears the mind and cuts through illusions, Neptune's light creates illusions and can confuse the mind, and Pluto's light burns the undead and banishes ghosts. Drawing power from Apophis/Planet X is anathema and dangerous, and this power is strongest during eclipses when the sun is dark. Apophic mages channel the alien intelligence of the sun-eater and over time begins influencing their minds. The movement to remove Pluto's planetary status was a conspiracy by Apophic mages to try and dissolve the outermost crystal sphere.

Aria, the realm of music. Practitioners of musical magic are extremely rare, but its power is bound in a handful of artifacts that were played by legendary bards and musicians - Orpheus, Pan, the Pied Piper. Music magic is only as powerful as the bard is skilled. This realm is inhabited by many colorful denizens, but has no ruler. It appears as a vast interconnected system of caves and tunnels, like the world is an enormous flute of unfathomable complexity. Any resemblance to Fraggle Rock is completely coincidental.

Underworld, the realm of death, home to wandering shades and barren, skeletal plants. The magic derived from this realm is necromancy. Death mages can call on the restless dead and summon or banish ghosts. This realm is the origin of the vampire curse, which seems to have originated when a powerful death mage refused to accept their own death and became a sort of necromantic siphon, perpetually draining energy from any realm and being they could find to keep themself going. Hunger is a staple of this realm.

Toon, the realm of animating the inanimate. Suits of armor, weapons, dolls, brooms, etc. Objects animated by the power of this realm can move in ways that are physically impossible for the materials they're composed of. This realm appears similar to earth, but much more colorful, and everything is animated and alive. The hard part of drawing on this realm's power is not animating things, but animating them the way you want them to animate. It seems heavily linked to the human tendency to anthropomorphize. Toon mages seem to have limited control over the personalities their animated creations end up with.

Lir, the magical ocean realm that the Fomoire were banished to. It is separated from Earth by a dimensional veil, but that veil is maintained by Manannán, one of the surviving Tuatha de Danann, and as his power wanes the veil thins. Exits from this realm are mostly found in Earth's oceans, but if the veil thins enough its denizens can escape through lakes, puddles and even reflections in mirrors.

The Goblin Market, the economic hub of the multiverse. Not a source of magic, but comparatively very easy to stumble into - any suitably bustling mercantile location can serve as a doorway. You can get almost anything at the goblin market, but the prices are steep and the products often deceptive. Nobody lies in Goblin Market, but there's no rule against misleading, or being aggressively literal. "Technically true" is the only true that matters. They also take online orders, tithe payment on delivery. "No firstborn" policy is very clearly stated in the terms and conditions.

Winter, a realm of infinite cold - frozen tundra, glaciers, rivers, the occasional evergreen forest and a constant dance of blue-green auroras overhead. This realm once dominated the earth, and fully expects to again - winter is nothing if not patient. Winter doesn't have a ruler so much as it has a number of avatars - the Snow Queen, General Winter, Jack Frost, etc. The odd one out is the Green Knight, the spirit of winter's end. She is just as indestructible as her namesake, leaves a trail of melted snow and spring flowers behind her, and battles Winter whenever it threatens to overstay its time on earth. She and the Snow Queen have something going on.

Fairyland has a secret. For the most part it's quite simple: it is the realm of the fairy king and queen. Everything in this realm is a creation of glamour, a stage-setting backdrop to set the scene of a hundred petty performances as all the fairies try and steal each other's spotlights. The realm is, at least theoretically, entirely under the king and queen's control, and it serves as a direct extension of their will. Its aesthetic is dependent on their moods, and they mostly keep it in eternal springtime with a huge palace to drape themselves in. Power drawn from this realm is hugely dangerous, as to invoke the realm is to invoke its queen directly; the nature of this realm is unreality - glamour and ephemera. Creatures of this realm are often both entranced and overwhelmed by Earth because of how real it is - a level of reality that disrupts the falsehoods that make them what they are. Fairies are, by their nature, almost as hungry as the dead. Around the edges of the realm, however, things get older and weirder; there are constants, real constants, that the Fairy King and Queen have no power over. A grove of nine hazels, a fountain with a few salmon living in it, a silver-branched tree with golden apples, crumbling stone foundations of what might have been a city once, etc. Fairyland's secret is that it is built over the ruins of Tír na nÓg, diminished when Manannán left to guard the realm of Lir and slowly dwindled down to a mere extension of the ego of its rulers. Perhaps the fair folk are always so hungry for reality because they are the shades left behind when their pantheon was stripped of its own reality. Perhaps they are nothing but falsehoods and glamour and stories because that's all anyone has left of them.

#asks #not aurora #urban fantasy thing

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writingonjorvik · 3 months

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What do you think about the main story ending after playing the game for so long?

The story isn't ending. That's not like a denial response, the story isn't ending. That would be an incredibly poor financial decision on SSE's part.

Look, maybe it is. Maybe SSE is aiming to wrap up SSO and shut down the servers on the end of the story arc. We don't know the pace of "Beginning of the End" coming out, it may give SSO three more years to finish telling the one story they wanted to tell. But on account of SSE finally redesigning early gameplay, it makes very little sense to overhaul all of SSO's gameplay and then shut it down shortly after. That kind of change should set SSO up for many more years to come. But I don't see ending the story and making SSO a social hub kind of MMO really being good for retention. I'm sure there are some, but if the story ends completely, then a chunk of folks are going to get caught up and stop coming back. And when those folks start to dwindle, so will other groups of folks because there are less and less people online.

What is happening is the end of the Garnok arc, which I've already said, needs to happen. This story has been being told since 2005, almost two decades at this point. It needs to end so the story can stop getting written into a corner, particularly when it comes to introducing new NPCs. And after Garnok gets defeated, SSE is open to telling all kinds of stories and introduce new characters, just some of which being:

What's up with the witches and their coven politics? How do they feel about the Vala? Are there more Vala? Is their magic affected in any way by not having access to Garnok or Pandoria?

If the Soul Riders and druids lose their powers after the Garnok fight because the connection with Pandoria is severed as Ydris said had to happen in the quests, how are they going to handle new threats? How does not having their powers affect the Soul Riders as people?

What does happen to Pandoria after Garnok is gone? Defeating Garnok doesn't remove all of DC or the damage they did, so what happens after?

What happens between the druids and DC afterwards? Like in actual politics, there are massive explosions going on in the modern era, someone is going to report that. There are going to be legal battles for both sides, how do those play out?

Most recent story snack has introduced morally gray trees, what are they going to do when the connection between Jorvik and Pandoria is severed? Do they still have access through the Brambletween or do they need to seek out new worlds? Can they survive without a source of magic to sustain them?

We're only seen 1/4 of the island of Jorvik, that's 3 more massive zones to be added (I will circle back to this one).

Half a dozen other portals we don't know where they go to like the Doors and the Icendell portal, not to mention other worlds like the Cloud Kingdom and wherever the Caprans are from. And anything else the Between or Brambletween is connected to, all possibilities to explore.

The politics thing again, DC getting overthrown leaves a massive power vacuum, assets, and probably some of the generals behind. SSE can handwave killing goons all they want, but I doubt they'll have the PC kill any of the generals, so what happens to them after? Do they die when Garnok dies? Who tries to step in to fill the void? Sure there's no Garnok, but there are all of the resources DC had and bound to be another world full of magic that can be manipulated. If it's just power they're after, I'm sure whatever rainy day magic DC had could still give someone quite a bit of that for a while to come.

Ok, but what does happen to Jorvik when the connection with magic gets severed? There is so much magic infrastructure built into the island now, what happens when it fails? What parts of it are native to Jorvik at this point? Do those things start dying? Does Jorvik establish its own source of magic? Does it bring back Aideen? Does it fully cut Jorvik off from Aideen? That could hypothetically kill the magic horses, and I don't think SSE would let that canon happen, so where is that new magic?

What happens to the MC after? Like do they lose their magic? Like, congrats, you got dragged into this quest after coming here for summer camp, like 3 months later you've got no magic and trauma. One of those I don't see SSE tackling, but where I can see the Soul Riders retiring or being more cyclable characters in the story, the MC has to be in the story. So what happens to them after? How do they reestablish themselves as important when their chosen one task is complete?

Secret other option, there's so much lore, I'm sure y'all can find another thing from the new lore that I don't remember.

I think the most set up story arc after the Garnok arc would be to start the Witch Wars arc. We know witches don't get their magic from Pandoria, so following the defeat of Garnok and the loss of Pandoria's magic, it makes the most sense for the druids to try and take some pointers from Mrs. Holdsworth. Which opens up the politics in the fallout of the druids vs DC battle and the sudden shift in magic between covens. And with the Vala making a very big play in the end of the Garnok arc, I'm sure there are some other witches with some feelings. Established NPCs there to introduce us to new NPCs, follows through on questions left over from the previous arc, lots of potential for new gameplay. That also sets up perfectly for a new 1/4 of the map, the northwest corner, as we know the shadow witches are in Northern Jorvik, and the fallout with DC very reasonably could take us to Pine Hill Mansion to make sure there aren't anymore loose ends/contingency plans Sands has set up.

I think also that folks should start working through the idea that the quarters of the map will be locked behind a paywall, like an expansion. There are plenty of buy to play MMOs who have this model, and I think realistically, it's one SSO will follow. Also following other MMOs, $20-$30 USD for several years of expansion is well within a reasonable ask in my opinion. It's not a microtransaction, it's a permanent add on, and I think holds way more value than what that amount of SC can get you in game currently.

But yeah. It would be a very poor financial decision to keep SSO going and not continue the story, and I think SSO is making too much money to not continue keeping the game going, so that would need a new story. There's going to be a new main arc, some archthreat comparable to Garnok, and a new way of looking at magic, which would time perfectly with SSE's promises of letting us use magic more actively. Start a new magic system, don't worry about adapting over the original one into mechanics.

#woj theories #star stable #star stable online #sso #starstableonline #starstable #sso blr #ssoblr

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leaderoffestivals · 7 months

Text

Poltergeist Chapter 7

Madara: Are those kids, like, SCPs or somethiiing?

Scenario Writer: Akira Season: Winter Characters: Mikejima Madara, Sakasaki Natsume, Aoba Tsumugi, Narukami Arashi

Tsumugi: First off, after discussing with the on-site staff, it's been decided that we'll start by helping out with simple tasks around the place, such as tidying the rooms and washing the dishes.

Uh, by the way, it seems a little late to bring this up now, but it looks like the position of leader has fallen naturally to me due to my past experience in this line of work. Is everyone okay with that?

This project was originally designed with you in mind, Mikejima-kun, so if you'd like to take on the leader's role, I can step aside and let you have it.

Madara: Nope, it’s fine. I believe in letting those best suited for the job take the lead. Quite frankly, if I were in charge, I wouldn't have the slightest clue about what to do here!

Arashi: I agree. I can only imagine how that would be like pouring gasoline over the raging fires of an already chaotic situation.

Madara: Ohhh, what's this? Aren't you supposed to be halfway home by now, Arashi-san?

Arashi: Seriously? What kind of Onee-chan would I be if I abandoned Anzu-chan here and escaped by myself?

There's no way I could leave Anzu-chan behind in this dangerous nest of demons, especially not when all the men here don't seem like they'll be of any use at all!

Natsume: AhahA. Your opinion of us is truly scraping rock-bottOM, isn't iT?

Tsumugi: Well, NEWDI has always been completely dependent on Knights for its survival up till now~, so it probably can't be helped if we're seen as somewhat unreliable.

Anyway, let's get back to the topic at hand. There are five of us from ES and thirty children here. How about dividing them up into five groups, with each of us taking charge of one?

It would be a lot more manageable than dealing with all of them at once.

In addition, by focusing on smaller groups, we're more likely able to nurture a closer relationship with the children—

—which would make it easier for us to capture the heartwarming moments needed for the show.

Madara: Indeed. The window available for us to get the footage for the show is reeeally small. The best strategy for us would be to focus on building connections with smaller groups of children in that limited time frame since—

—any plan to win over everyone at once would probably take wayyy more time than we have.

Natsume: That's a strategy one might use in a dating sim or a gal gaME (1), wouldn't you sAY?

Tsumugi: Yes, it is~. By the way, I casually asked the staff here for a summary of the children's profiles, and based on that information, grouped those who seem likely to present lower risks together.

In the worst case scenario, we would be able to use the footage from the cameras following those groups of children for the show, right? What do all of you think?

Madara: I agree. The footage from the auditorium incident earlier definitely can't be used for the programme.

It's only because the kids are, well, children, that the incident could be handwaved as a childish prank, but if they had been adults like us, it would've been considered a malicious act.

Natsume: We would have had a major on-set incident on our haNDS.

Back to the topIC; could you give specifics on how the groups are actually dividED?

Tsumugi: To start, I made a rough first cut by gender.

Some of the children are of an age where they can't go to the bathroom alone, and that could become problematic if they got paired with someone of the opposite gender, despite the fact that all of them are children.

For the girls, I've designated the group which poses the higher risk of danger as the 'Rafflesia (2) Group', while the relatively safer group is called the 'Sunflower Group'.

Madara: Ahaha. It’s almost like you're classing dangerous creatures according to the level of threat they pose!

Tsumugi: Fufu. I'm thinking of assigning Narukami-kun and Anzu-chan to be in charge of these two groups. However…, who will be the one to take up the more dangerous group, though?

Arashi: … … I don't want to do it, but I'll be the one to take charge of the riskier group.

Natsume: HeH~. As one would expect of a gallant Knight; you have to protect a lady from danger at all coSTS, don't yOU?

Arashi: That’s part of the reason, of course, but when you come down to it, Anzu-chan isn't an idol.

We can't let the Producer-san, who's helping us out of goodwill, do anything dangerous that could result in an injury, right?

We, as idols, signed a contract that included a hazardous duty clause, and we were briefed on the risks involved when we agreed to take on this job. However, that's not the case for Anzu-chan.

Tsumugi: Yes. That is indeed where we differ, in this matter.

Arashi: Also, although the 'Rafflesia group' might play vicious pranks which might result in totally unusable footage—

According to the staff working here, the girls are generally much more docile than the boys.

Tsumugi: Yes. And for the boys, who aren't docile at all, I've also grouped them according to the level of danger they pose. From the lowest to the highest risk, we have the 'Rabbit group', the 'Lion group', and the 'Kaijuu (3) group'

Madara: Oh myyy? You've actually resorted to naming some of them after fictional monsters now. Are those kids reeeally so terrible that real-life animals aren't adequate to describe the level of risk they pose?

Tsumugi: That's right. The kids in this 'Kaijuu group' are truly challenging, it seems.

They appear to be problem children in every sense of the word, and the staff have been repeatedly emphasising the numerous precautions one must take when dealing with them.

Madara: Are those kids, like, SCPs (4) or somethiiing?

Tsumugi: I couldn't say… My sensing of the situation is that the staff here are exceptionally apprehensive of the children, which bothers me a little—

Or—rather than saying the staff are fearful of the children, it feels like they're actually treating these difficult children with the utmost caution.

Natsume: WeLL, they’re dealing with childREN, after aLL. In today's world, where any form of corporal punishment can lead to immediate dismissal from one's jOB, I guess they're strictly following the policy of "not inviting trouble if one wishes to avoid iT".

Tsumugi: I guess that must be the case… … Now then, let's decide on the assignation of the boys' groups, shall we?

I can endure any situation as long as it doesn't kill me, so I'll be in charge of the riskiest Kaijuu group, alright?

Madara: Hmmm~… … No, I think you should leave that group to me.

Natsume: OhH? What's with the sudden change of heART? Why are you so motivated all of a suddEN?

Madara: It's not that I'm becoming motivated or anything, but I've been travelling all over the world while letting my idol career slide, and gaining aaall sorts of experiences in the meantime.

As things stand, I'm in great physical shape, and I'm tough too. That's why, when you consider the fact that the kids here hate adults to the point of attacking them, then—

Tsumugi: —You'd probably be a better choice to deal with those dangerous children than I would, right, Mikejima-kun?

Madara: Yep! Even if they were to physically attack me, I should be able to subdue them without causing them harm—

And if they were to set a trap that would kill Tsumugi-san instantly, I believe I should be able to spot it in advance and stay clear of it.

Natsume: Good griEF. Why does this conversation sound like it should be from a party of adventurers planning to tackle a dungeon full of dangerous monstERS, rather than a conversation among nursery school teachERS?

—————-To be continued——————-

Chapter 6 / Chapter 8

Translator’s Notes:

Dating sims are otome games (乙女ゲーム) where there's one female protagonist and multiple male love interests. Gal games (ギャルゲー) are the opposite, where there's one male protagonist and multiple female love interests.

Rafflesia is the world's largest flower, spanning up to 120cm wide. It is a parasitic plant and gives off a smell like rotting flesh. Pretty much a monster flower.

Kaijuu (怪獣) is a Japanese term, referring to giant monsters or creatures, e.g. Godzilla and Mothra which are commonly featured in science fiction and monster movies.

SCP, or Secure, Contain, Protect, is a collaborative creative writing community (Akira is part of it, having written a novel for the fandom.) Subjects of the stories mostly focuses on bizarre humans, monsters, diseases, phenomenon, or artifacts. The SCP Foundation, a fictional organization, detains and researches these entities, assigning them unique case-numbers (which have reached over 7000.)

#ensemble stars #enstars tl #mikejima madara #sakasaki natsume #narukami arashi #aoba tsumugi #mam #new color #poltergeist #Pop culture reference #SCP #SCP fandom #Kaijuus

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princess-of-the-corner · 4 months

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I wanna start by saying I'm not trying to start a fight, but you saying that Chloe had some kind of mental break or dissociative episode in Queen Wasp as a way to excuse the train incident has always felt like a bit of a reach

Idk if you've ever had a dissociative episode or mental breakdown or anything like that, and I'm not demanding you share if you have, but I have, and the way we see Chloe act in Queen Wasp is not how someone who is dissociating would act in my experience

She's too cognizant

After snapping, transforming, and running, Chloe has the presence of mind to stop on the closest vantage point she could find, look around for an idea of how to prove herself, focus on the subway, come up with the idea to stage a crash, dial Nadja Chamak's number to tell her about the train so there are cameras present, and stop and paralyze the driver before trying to stop the train

There was a time when I was dissociating after a massive fight with my parents and walking through my neighborhood, and I came to a cross light.

I remember seeing that I couldn't go straight across bc of the red light, and seeing that a car was coming down the street, but I kept walking straight.

The car was too far away to be dangerous to me, but they did slam their brakes and honk.

I didn't register any of that, I just kept walking. I didn't even realize what had happened until hours after I had gotten back home and calmed down.

That's not what happened to Chloé in Queen Wasp. She wasn't thinking clearly bc she was rightfully upset and hurt and acting impulsively, but it wasn't a mental break

BUDDY

Okay okay okay we're just gonna.

Firstly: Different experiences and different words for different things!

Yes, some people's breakdowns are the type of disassociation where they're not aware they're just in full zombie mode.

Other people's breakdowns are organized and focused and seemingly aware! They're still not quite in the right state of mind! But they do things that are a little off and they wouldn't usually because they think it'll make them feel better!

This isn't a disassociation state, this is more like a manic episode. Like, I'm not saying that this is genuinely a manic episode for Chloé because I am not an expert and I don't know if she hits more checks for that sort of disorder and it's a very short episode as far as we can tell while a proper episode would be a longer period of time. It's just the best word I can find to describe this type of breakdown But I have 100% seen and experienced both the 'zombie mode' and the 'oh let's do something about this!!' breakdown.

And yes, in the real world, an episode like this wouldn't result directly to 'fake a train accident', it does result in extremely poor decisionmaking as they ride it out. Things like impulsively chopping off hair, spending money they can't afford to, taking risks in sexual situations, etc. But in a kids show with superheroes, that is 100% on the table.

Again: I am not an expert, but Chloé was going through some hell and I've seen people snap in that sort of way where, were they a cartoon character, could end up in that situation.

Secondly:

You make it sound like I'm just excusing it like 'haha whatever it's chill'. Which, to be fair, Canon did that! The train thing is just never brought up again and she never faces any consequences for it so Canon thinks it's fine!

But even if she is in the most manic or dissassociative or whatever state? She is still responsible for what happens when she comes down from it. And yeah in a fictional world like this you can handwave that action when everyone ends up fine instead of having her go to jail or some shit.

Thirdly:

We aren't talking about how this incident should be ignored. We're talking about how this is considered the worst thing that Chloé has done, and proof that she's 'evil', but it was something done while not only not in the right state of mind, but something that never intended to harm anyone, didn't end up harming anyone, and also did in fact get brushed off by the rest of the cast.

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