parsleysagerosemarytimemachine

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

Murderbot I love u

Original post by @lavenderlemniscate

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

lkjhalkjshfgkjhlkJHSFLKGJHSLDKFJGHSD

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

that "pear shaped" is an idiom meaning "something has gone wrong" is a scathing indictment of the british people, and their lack of proper respect and appreciation for a "thick bitch"

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

for the past several months, my ttrpg group and i have been playing through various world- and character-building games to prepare for our new scifi campaign. i've never done something like this before so intensely, and i highly recommend it. we've been having a blast. we start the campaign proper this week with Scum and Villainy, so that's exciting!

anyway, i wanted to share a comprehensive list of the games we played during this prep period and a brief summary of what we did with them:

First, we played Dialect: A Game About Language and How It Dies, focusing on a satellite community trying (and mostly failing, RIP) to resist assimilation by the Evil Empire.

Next up was Microscope: a fractal role-playing game of epic histories, to flesh out the thousand-year history of aforementioned Evil Empire;

Next we played Fiasco to explore the events that led to a specific faction leader's power grab (aka. a drama-filled graduation party)

Then we played Dialect again (it's a really good game, okay?!), focusing on some robots who were tasked with taking care of a base full of a Big Bad Evil Guy's secrets for 300 years. (They have his soul on a USB drive now.)

Next up was Heretical Geese, to play through the final exam of a group of assassin students, set in a VR speakeasy;

After that was City Planning Department, to create the city where the PCs live at the start of the game, from the point of view of the slightly unhinged city council.

Then we started focusing on the PCs' backstories, and played three different games (one per PC) to explore specific events that happened pre-campaign. You can read about these in more detail here, but in summary, we played:

Good Society, to explore how one PC chose duty over love 25 years ago;

HOUNDs, to explore how one PC stole a sentient spaceship and tried to escape the empire (it went badly);

A Long Night in the Mech Bay, to explore one PC's relationship and eventual divorce (with the npc who will be the ship's captain).

And then we played Bucket of Bolts to explore the history of the ship the PCs will be adventuring on, and we plan to play i'm sorry did you say street magic in a week or so to create the city where the campaign will really kick off! i'm also planning on doing a part 2 of Microscope at some point, to flesh out even more history, for a day when i don't feel like prepping a regular session.

WHEW. as i said, can't recommend doing this enough. it's been super fun and (from a GM perspective) very little actual work, since most of these games are GM-less and prep-free. involving the players in worldbuilding fosters this really great dynamic where everyone really cares about and takes ownership over parts of the world that have nothing to do with their PCs, and it's really gotten us pumped for the game to come.

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

Thinking about the way Murderbot refers to itself and SecUnits in general as murderbots (derogatory) and then ComfortUnits as sexbots (derogatory)

Like yes. It definitely had some issues with ComfortUnits as a concept that it needed to work through but it's also funny to think that maybe it'd just be like that for any given "unit," regardless of function.

CulinaryUnit: Oh if you need a weapon there's knives in the kitchen, if you want to stop by.

Murderbot: (Disdainfully) I don't need to take advice from a chefbot.

Murderbot: (Internally) Yes, I did stop by the kitchen, and I did get the fucking knives. Whatever.

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

I thought I was late to my appointment at the ADHD clinic but the ADHD clinic knows their clients well and the appointment reminded me to be here at 1:30 when my appointment was actually at 2:00.

Me: oh good I'm actually on time! :)

Me, realizing why and being overcome by the mortifying ordeal of being known: >:/

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

It's free axe.

"Fun" with Axes

I was driving down a local road this morning, just jiving to tunes, headed to an appointment. It's warm out and I had the windows down and I'm doing one of those train-of-thought things that happens sometimes.

I come up to a cross street and a little fire truck pulls out in front of me. Not like, a full-size one, something smaller, which I didn't really know was a thing but this was a real fire truck.

I'm contemplating the tools on the back.

I wonder if they have to fold all that hose up again when they're done with it or if there's some apparatus that folds it for them. Do they get whoever is lowest on the totem poll to do it? Do they all have to just stick around until the hose is folded up again?

And those tools on the back... Do they padlock them on so that they don't get stolen? ... No, that's not practical in case of a fire, they'd need fast access to them.

Oh, hm thinks I, getting distracted by the sign at the local catholic church, Confirmundi is a strange word. Is it even a word?...

Wait, what is that in the road? It looks like a weird bar or a big arrow with a florescent stripe of paint on the end and it is skittering down the road at my car rather quickly...

Queue me, hitting the brakes and still trying to figure out what this thing is as it gets closer to the front of my car.

Oh, my god, as realization strikes me like... well, you'll see... That is an axe. That is an axe flying down the road at my suddenly extremely vulnerable-appearing tires. WHY THE ACTUAL FUCK IS THERE AN... Oh. An axe appears to have fallen off of the fire truck. I suppose that answers the question of whether they bolt their tools down.

They do not.

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

image id:

a 4 page comic showing a conversation between two original characters, jackie delco and melanie castenada. jackie: HA! so you’re saying you believe in fate? the scene zooms out. mel is leaning on a turned over, wrecked car, and jackie is smoking a cigarette. it’s night, and the scene is in muted blues. mel: i’m saying i know the end. it’s different. jackie: yeah? explain that to me. mel rolls her eyes. jackie: come on, just indulge me. i’m your poor ‘temporally-locked’ friend - just explain it to me like its an idiot. mel: fine. mel and jackie are seen as silhouettes against the night sky, as jackie passes their cigarette to mel. a panel shows a close up of mel’s hand holding the cigarette, with vibrant waves of red, blue, and green in the background. mel: it’s like… the scene breaks out of the panel structure, and the red, blue, and green take over the entire page. three different versions of mel offer explanations, each seen in one section of the background color. they are shown in simple sketchy linear that matches the color of the section the are in, unlike the fully-colored mel from the panels. each offers their explanation simultaneously. mel (red): you know when you turn 26, but you still feel 12? mel (blue): you know when you walk through your house in the dark, and still navigate perfectly? mel (green): you know when your friend is in a play - so you go see it 3 times in a row? the panels briefly return, and show the normal version of mel taking a drag on the cigarette. she says ‘it’s nothing like that.’ mel (green): by the third time you know all the lines, and you still have to go see it again. mel (blue): you don’t even need the map - because you’re the one that built the roads. jackie and mel return to the panels and the nighttime scene again. mel: it’s like there’s only one of us in this conversation. jackie: which one? mel: that’s the wrong question. mel and jackie are seen standing next to each other in twin spotlights in the green section behind the panels. jackie (green): so you’re saying we’re actors? mel (night): that’s still the wrong questtion. jackie (night): i didn’t say anything. in the night panels, mel looks over one shoulder thoughtfully and turns to jackie. mel: it’s like that old saying, about the tree falling in the forest. the red scene in the background interrupts the panels. mel here is desperately gripping jackie’s shoulder, and is silhouetted by a bright halo of lines. she says ‘it’s like when you left them all in that burning building’. in the nighttime panels, mel shrugs. she says ‘you don’t need to see it for it to happen.’ jackie, in the red scene, steps back and looks surprised. a fire burns behind them. jackie (red): i don’t think i like this conversation. jackie in the night panels is seen in the same pose as above. jackie (night): so you’re saying the tree’s already going to fall? mel is seen fully colored as she is in the night panels, although she is now outside of the panels entirely. she turns away from jackie and looks over her shoulder. mel: i’m saying it already has. jackie is seen in silhouette against the night sky in a solitary panel against the bright background. jackie (night): i don’t think i like this conversation. mel, seen the same way as above, bows her head and closes her eyes. mel: yeah. neither do i.

end id.

mel and jackie have a conversation.

mel had a close enocunter with a quantum anomaly as a child that means she experiences all of time simultaneously, and has for her entire life. she’s got a bit of an odd relationship with concepts like fate as a result!!

#art #time #really cool stuff

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

died and came back exactly the same but something was so so so wrong with me before and now I have an excuse to really lean into it

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

“Adaire, take +1 forward on aid.” 

Thursday’s episode left me emotionally broken and bereft and I wanted to draw something Good so here’s our spiky girls having a bit of peace in Samol’s garden. I figured out mobile hotspot just to post it so that’s a hting I know how to do I guess.

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

Tiffany couldn't quite work out how Miss Level got paid. Certainly the basket she carried filled up more than it emptied. They'd walk past a cottage and a woman would come scurrying out with a fresh-baked loaf or a jar of pickles, even though Miss Level hadn't stopped there. But they'd spend an hour somewhere else, stitching up the leg of a farmer who'd been careless with an axe, and get a cup of tea and a stale biscuit. 

It didn't seem fair.

“Oh, it evens out,” said Miss Level, as they walked on through the woods. 

“You do what you can. People give what they can, when they can. Old Slapwick there, with the leg, he's as mean as a cat, but there'll be a big cut of beef on my doorstep before the week's end, you can bet on it. His wife will see to it. And pretty soon people will be killing their pigs for the winter, and I'll get more brawn, ham, bacon and sausages turning up than a family could eat in a year.”

“You do? What do you do with all that food?”

“Store it,” said Miss Level. 

“But you-”

“I store it in other people. It's amazing what you can store in other people.” Miss Level laughed at Tiffany's expression. “I mean, I take what I don't need round to those who don't have a pig, or who're going through a bad patch, or who don't have anyone to remember them.”

“But that means they'll owe you a favour!”

“Right! And so it just keeps on going round. It all works out.”

“I bet some people are too mean to pay-”

“Not pay,” said Miss Level, severely. “A witch never expects payment and never asks for it and just hopes she never needs to. But, sadly, you are right.”

“And then what happens?"

“What do you mean?”

“You stop helping them, do you?”

“Oh, no,” said Miss Level, genuinely shocked. “You can't not help people just because they're stupid or forgetful or unpleasant. Everyone's poor round here. If I don't help them, who will?”

"A Hat full of Sky" - Terry Pratchett

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

dragon g

g girl…

pr. ..

..etty.. .

Fanart of Falin Touden from Dungeon Meshi. I just finished reading it recently, incredible series.

(Psst I have prints of this available)

#art #oh yeah

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

Thank god they brought back An Amount Of Daylight That Makes You Want To Live. It was getting a bit scary for a minute there.

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

Scientists at UC Riverside have demonstrated a new, RNA-based vaccine strategy that is effective against any strain of a virus and can be used safely even by babies or the immunocompromised.  Every year, researchers try to predict the four influenza strains that are most likely to be prevalent during the upcoming flu season. And every year, people line up to get their updated vaccine, hoping the researchers formulated the shot correctly. The same is true of COVID vaccines, which have been reformulated to target sub-variants of the most prevalent strains circulating in the U.S. This new strategy would eliminate the need to create all these different shots, because it targets a part of the viral genome that is common to all strains of a virus. The vaccine, how it works, and a demonstration of its efficacy in mice is described in a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  “What I want to emphasize about this vaccine strategy is that it is broad,” said UCR virologist and paper author Rong Hai. “It is broadly applicable to any number of viruses, broadly effective against any variant of a virus, and safe for a broad spectrum of people. This could be the universal vaccine that we have been looking for.”

Continue Reading.

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

LESS THAN TWO HOURS AGO: four cornell students have been suspended (and at least the one reporting was evicted, unknown about the others) for their involvement with their campus's gaza solidarity encampment. during a school year centering freedom of expression no less!

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

When Touga is finally released from adult small talk, he finds Nanami and Anthy at the base of a tree, watching a single-file procession of ants. They’re both following the ants with their eyes, not saying a word. Touga’s not sure what to make of it, but Nanami jumps up to hug him as always, so he figures he shouldn’t worry about it. - In another world, Anthy, Touga and Nanami get along a little better as children than as teenagers.

#utena #fic #this is sweet and creepy at the same time #good job

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

a raven father (i call him "pants") I've been feeding sometimes likes to sit outside my window and either wait for more food or just listen to the stuff I'm watching while I draw. Today's a colder day so he likes to fluff up a bit, and I kid you not :

this is an accurate representation of my view