#& also because like most of the world building of hp

[leog4u]

Game Design and Porn Pt. 1

or, How To Fuck Up The Best Intrinsic Reward Ever

Hi, I'm Leo G, veteran pervert. One time while chatting in a server exclusively made of porn artists, I brought up the game design of a porn game I enjoyed. One of them laughed, saying "Who cares, it's just a porn game?" Being unwell, I never let this go. Since then, I have played many adult games and took each one as serious products made by professionals. Fast forward to today, and the demo for my porn game, Joker's Trip, is nearing completion. I also have some sci-fi erotica you should check out.

So you wanna make a porn game. You heard they make money, and hey what’s more fun than making a video game AND porn? But you don’t know where to begin! Well don’t worry, Leo’s got you covered. We’re gonna walk through the line of thinking you should have when designing your porn game. There's gonna be at least three parts to this, with part 1 focusing on how to reward your player.

Define "porn game" for me, Leo.

There are porn games, and then games with porn in them. A porn game is a game where you won’t last 5 minutes, where everything exists solely to meet and, subsequently, fuck. A game with porn in it is a game where everything exists for the purpose of the game, and also, you fuck. Fate Stay Night, for example, is a VN with a story that just so happens to have some CGs where the protagonist rails Saber, but is mainly about Shirou and the Holy Grail War. Much like how I would call Castlevania a game with horror in it, but not a horror game.

Porn games are a lot like horror games. They both get a bad rap for being cheap to make, appealing to base instincts, and generally being low quality. They're also both not actual genres of games, but genres of content. Think about it, if I asked you what a horror game is, you'd say a game that's scary. But what's the actual game part? The unfortunate answer would most likely be "walking sim," but there are a lot of examples that are FPSes, puzzles, driving sims, platformers, deck builders, the list goes on.

The most common genres of game I see for porn games these days are by far RPG Maker RPGs and VNs. I won’t be talking about VNs because they’re closer to writing than game design, which isn’t a flaw but a feature. What used to be everywhere, in days of old, were breakout games, where the more bricks and levels were cleared, the more of the sexy image would be revealed in the background. Other arcadey type deals like shoot ‘em ups and mahjong were also around, and had a similar “strip ‘em down until you have sex” gameplay loop.

Okay, so what’s an intrinsic reward?

There’s intrinsic rewards, and there're extrinsic rewards. Extrinsic rewards, generally, are the number go up rewards. Things that make your character stronger, or give you more resources to buy new gear or whatever. Intrinsic rewards in games can cover a large swathe of things. It can be the feeling of satisfaction of completing a puzzle, a piece of lore or world building, or a new dialogue option with a character you want to fuck.

I like fucking characters, are we talking about porn now?

Yes! I’m of the opinion that you literally can’t make a better intrinsic reward than pornography. On top of setting the tone for the entirety of the game., at its best it can add to a story, add to someone’s character development, or be a beautiful piece of art to look at. AND you can jack off to it! Unfortunately, that’s at its best. Let’s talk about how porn is delivered in a theoretical RPG porn game. (As a head’s up, there will be talk of “bad end” scenes, but this is under the assumption that the player is the one consenting.)

So you’re playing an RPG and get into a fight. Maybe you were underleveled or too cumbrained to remember to buy healing potions. Then your HP goes to zero, and instead of going back to the title screen, you’re getting fucked by orcs. That’s right, let’s talk about Game Over CGs.

You get to watch porn when you lose?

To someone making a porn game with a battle system, this delivery method makes sense. The characters in this world are driven primarily by lust, this is just the obvious conclusion. And it doesn’t even have to be non-consensual! Games like Future Fragments show that it can be presented as a sexy inconvenience rather than anything uncomfortable for the player or our hero. Game Over CGs even have the benefit of softening the blow of defeat, by giving the player a chance to reflect on their defeat and jerk off. Even better if losing a fight isn’t lost progress, but rather a bump in the road. However, there’s a problem here. The player is a dog, and we’re rewarding bad behavior.

The porn is an intrinsic reward, so why are we giving it to the player for losing? Incentivizing losing on purpose isn’t just bad game design, but a waste of time. And to that end, a lot of porn games try to give solutions to this. One being a kill button on the keyboard or a skill that instantly KOs our hero to get to the lose screen faster. What might seem like a convenience is really just expediting failure.

What it says is that the gameplay doesn’t actually matter. You’re just here for the porn, right? In that case there’s plenty of places I can go to see a chick with huge knockers get railed by an orc, with the added bonus of not having to play forgettable and mid turn based combat!

Another solution I’ve seen is the game outright telling you, “hey don’t bother killing yourself to see the porn. Once you beat the game all of the scenes you missed will be unlocked!” At first this seems like a reasonable way to go about it, but it comes with another problem: your game better be fucking good to make me play through the entire thing before getting to see cock. Like I said earlier, porn at its best can reveal things about the world and drive character development. I uh. Just beat the game. I don’t care anymore. Showing me a scene that’s taken out of context by a factor of 5 hours or more isn’t what I’d call great game design or story telling. It’s also too little, too late.

What if we made the porn actual rewards?

Now we’re getting somewhere! Let’s make the reward…a reward! What if, every time the player beats a level, we get some porn? If we tie the CG to beating the boss, we’ll be tying the reward to game progression. That’s good right? So now, on top of the extrinsic rewards you’d normally get for beating a boss (a lot of EXP, better gear, opened areas) we also get that sweet dopamine rush of pornography! So we’re good, right?

There’s 1142 words left in this post, so I’m assuming no.

Well. It’s a start. It has the problem of predictability. If not handled properly, it comes off as lazy. As a game designer, one of your goals is to not constantly remind your player that they’re playing a video game. Get through the level, get porn. It feels a little too “mouse in a maze looking for cheese” for my taste. And much like the game over method, if the actual game itself is mid, the player will start to question if the reward is worth it, and might be afflicted with the worst condition a player could receive: boredom.

Of course there are exceptions. In puzzle or arcade type games where you don’t get extrinsic rewards, giving the player porn as another form of reward per level or whatever is perfectly reasonable (though it does have the issue of being predictable.) This is a perfectly good way of doing it if your game is short, or if the game is, y’know, good and fun to play. Bad Color’s game, Heroine Conquest, is a level based puzzle game with porn as the reward, but only when you do good. Combining the actual challenge of mastering the game, with a genuinely unique game loop makes for a feeling of accomplishment when beating a level. Pair that up with a sex cutscene, and the dopamine rush will hit.

So! Let’s combine giving the player a power trip, with a less rigid structure for giving the player porn. Instead of tying the porn to purely progression gates, let’s tie it to the progression.

Plot milestones

In Third Crisis, sex scenes are peppered throughout the regular game’s plot, starting with some lesbian bondage before introducing the protagonist, who goes through a tutorial before having their own horny encounters. It’s not just given when you win or lose, but is a natural part of the game. Beating bosses, losing to enemies, and exploring dialogue options in sidequests all lead to unlocking new CGs.

Now what’s nice about that, is that the sex isn’t placed somewhere extremely predictable. It isn’t just a reward for beating The Boss Of Forest Zone, Now Go To Ice Zone And Beat The Ice Boss For More Cock. Because that’s the biggest issue of predictable rewards, you know you’re not getting anything until that checkpoint, which will make the player weigh whether or not it’s even worth continuing. This is fine, again, for an arcade type game, not an RPG or adventure game. By sprinkling sex throughout the plot itself, the player will not only want to progress, but their curiosity will have them wondering “what else is out there?”

Rewarding exploration

By putting sex scenes behind optional side quests or encounters, the dog that is the player will scour every single corner of the map, and leave no pixel unturned. Personally, that’s more exciting to me than what you’ll get in the main progression route. In Future Fragments the player can find their rival Faye in sexual situations if they explore the map enough. These are completely optional, and don’t give any direct rewards like more HP or an item, but they’re by far what motivates me to explore the maps as thoroughly as possible, more so than the plot macguffins the game is named after!

So now the player is excited. Sex can happen anywhere. Maybe that daunting off road path with stronger monsters isn’t just hiding a secret, but a sexy secret! They’ll be more likely to venture down those optional paths you painstakingly made.

If we’re using sex in game overs, boss fights, and just randos, why not put it everywhere?

So now I want to talk about the concept of a “sex stat”. It’s not a bad idea! Say, the higher the player’s sex stat is, the more opportunities you unlock for fucking. It could even be tied to the player character’s personality, and affect the story! Instead of using a sword and shield, they’ll end any conflict with sass and sex. They open their eyes to the horny world around them and stop being a hero, and instead become a succubus, and the ending is a massive cum filled orgy.

That sounds excessive

Yeah, it does, doesn’t it.

I’m not a fan of “corruption” systems in porn games. Corruption as a kink is totally fine, and having it be a part of the story lets you incorporate more sexuality into the plot. But as I alluded to, it snowballs pretty fast (and I’m not talking about spitting in someone’s mouth). It ends up being like a cheat code, where you’re bypassing parts of the game for no cost. It stops being a reward, it stops being unexpected, and it stops it from being sexy.

Wait, what? Stops being sexy? What’s not sexy about a succubus orgy?

Alright, listen, we gotta rein it in for a minute. This isn’t so much about game design as it is about writing erotica, but if you have a world where everyone’s fucking and sucking 24/7, there’s no contrast to make what would normally be a hot taboo a hot taboo. If everybody’s naked, nobody’s naked. The aforementioned snowball effect of a corruption system can be seen if you play literally any game that has one. It won’t take long to not have to engage with any combat or adventuring system if you can just press the “Submit to the big dick warlock” button and watch porn to progress.

Which, now that I said that, is exactly the problem. Imagine any other rpg you’ve ever played. Now imagine if every encounter and dialogue option had an option to just watch a short cutscene to skip the encounter. That would suck ass, right? Literally no difference here.

It would. Hey, I’m sort of lost now.

Don’t worry, we’re wrapping this up.

So what did we learn? We learned game over CGs have a critical design flaw that shouldn’t be relied on. We learned that predictable rewards can lead to boredom. We learned to keep sex as a reward and not devalue it.

To summarize, here’s a neat trick to know where to put your porn scenes.

”Would I put an Xbox Live achievement here?”

It’s that easy. “Lose to Goblins for the first time,” that’s an achievement. “Beat orc commander,” that’s an achievement. “Find Hubert the Magical Dickhead,” that’s an achievement. Using that as a guideline is foolproof. Almost.

This sounds like it’d take a lot of resources

It sure does! But don’t worry. I’ll cover that in the next post talking all about how to deal with the resource management of a porn game.

(Shoutout to Taylor, my guy for editing!)

#Leo Gab #game design #game dev

[phoenixyfriend]

Making this its own post instead of an ask.

I divide crossovers into categories or types, and here the most basic ones.

Intrusive:

A character from one setting ends up in another, completely unrelated setting. They do not share a universe, do not share a planet, nada. This is "falls through a portal" type of crossover. EXAMPLE: A Witch's Favor, where Wanda Maximoff and Maria Rambeau (Marvel) end up in the Star Wars universe due to an unexplained spell malfunction.

Shared Verse:

The settings could theoretically, in some manner, exist in the same universe without ever intersecting. EXAMPLE: I usually use Naruto for this example, e.g. the Hidden Continent exists in the Pacific but has had minimal influence/interaction with the rest of the setting up to this point because it's magically cut off from the rest of the planet. For Star Wars, this is usually pretty easy by just putting whatever the second canon is as just. A planet in Wild Space. They exist in the same universe! They just haven't found each other yet! A great example is the fic A Star to Steer By, by @norcumii and @dogmatix. A subset of this is fics where one is the distant past of the other, like Muse on This or Red-Eyed Black Widow.

Mixed Verse:

The setting is one that involves both canons influencing each other to a degree, or being in the same verse without being a fusion AU or shared-verse. The settings exist together, both having strong worldbuilding elements of the original, but are not fully themselves and show obvious elements of the other. EXAMPLE: Unfortunately my most recent example is an HP crossover so. Please keep in mind that this is from four years ago, before R*wling outed herself as a massive bigot: Professor Storm.

Fusion:

More or less 1:1 "this character from fandom A would be this character from fandom B" or otherwise "characters from fandom A reimagined in fandom B with none of the original setting." For a long time, HP was the biggest and most constant example, but uhhh that's clearly been falling out of favor like raw eggs. I've seen a lot of good ones for Hunger Games, though, and even wrote my own, but I know some other common ones are Steven Universe (which gem are they?), AtLA (which bender type are they?), or Pokemon (what trainer type are they). Also, arguably, generic AUs that don't take place in canon-verse, like modern or historical or zombie or Generic Cyberdystopia. EXAMPLE: After Me Comes the Flood.

Element Overlay:

A world-building element from Fandom B is applied to the setting and characters of Fandom A. Common examples are Daemon AUs or Sentinel/Guide AUs. I think a fun thing to point out is that, while they don't technically have a source fandom of origin since they were developed communally by fandom, soulmate AUs and omegaverse count as well.

There are other types, like infusing the plot of one narrative into the setting and characters of the other, which is a really fun kind of fusion (I always come back to thinking about Age of Marvels by justplainrii, which only ever got three chapters but still eats at my brain sometimes), buuuuut I'd say most crossovers are some variant of the above.

#phoenix talks #star wars #naruto #girl genius #the fandom that shan't be named #phoenix babbles #marvel #hunger games #etc

[dcxdpdabbles]

Hi, I am currently slowly writing a story about Danny Fenton being a mall Grinch in gotham and later fighting a Batman rouge (think mall Santa only the Grinch instead). I got a few chapters up and some art.

Do you got any advice on writing? I would love to hear it.

Also I really enjoy seeing you on Tumblr all the time,it has made my day happier many a time.

I hope you have a good year despite your haters.

DANNY AS THE GRINCH!? That's honestly so perfect. Please send me the link I love to see Danny just decking people with all his "I hate Christmas" energy.

Thank you for reading all my random dabbles. I really enjoy seeing people react to them. And no worries, I'm used to people hating. My HP and HP blog fics have been getting a lot of messages. Some people just have a lot of free time.

As for advice,

I always pick a character and write their POVS because I like exploring a character's narrative compared to what the audience knows.

You must know the character's mindset to write how they react to things. Know their backgrounds, likes, dislikes, habits, pet peeves, and favorite foods.

Knowing what the character would "see" first is also important. Like when describing settings. Most people (not all I know) do not spend three hours counting the grass stands or how many buildings are on the street, but they will usually spot one thing first - maybe the sunset looks really nice? A group of kids is playing, and screaming to the side? maybe they smell something good?- and their mind launches on to that before noticing other details.

Sprinkle into how they interact with the world makes them see real and more three-dimensional. Show not tell is one of my favorite methods to get that across.

For Example Tim,

He grew up wealthy but neglected. He is externally book smart and even has a good grasp of street smart, but emotionally intelligent, he's not the best.

To tell would be something like:

"Tim is a great CEO. Despite being young he can run a business great, can keep up with the Batman and can even find the time to date."

To show would be something like:

"Tim prides himself in organizing his schedule for a well balance work and private life. His duties as CEO were easier to manage due to his training as Drake Heir. He knew how to smile, charm, and persuade the upper crust of Gotham long before he was running on roofs with Bruce."

Both work well for any situation but showing lets people know why the character is the way they are without making it sound like a list of facts.

I hope this makes sense.

Oh also here are some really reference I like to go back to

Words to say instead of said

body languages phrases

How to build romantic relationships

#dcxdpdabbles #mun speaks

[olderthannetfic]

Apropos of world building.

No one is this whole wide world is allowed to say Harry Potter has good world building.

Always hated how people are super fascinated by this parallel society, but the only reason it works is because "Magic fuck you" until it apparently doesn't. It's so cheap and wishy washy. If literally every issue is just waved away with "magic" that's just cheap, because even problems that can't or shouldn't be fixed with magic, get fixed with magic. But then we still constantly hear about rules and that magic isn't a fix all, but only when it's convenient. It works for children's books maybe, but the moment it went beyond that, and then the entire "Extra lore" that happened later, it just started getting real stupid.

How do they keep their secret? -Magic.

Ok but obviously they are living somewhere so... -Magic expanding alleyways and areas.

But how does that work that literally no one notices, even from aerial shots? -Magic.

What about all the creatures that aren't normal? -Magic.

What if someone finds one of them or the plants? -Magic.

Ok, what about cross-cultural exchange? Even if you live in your gated community you gotta know some stuff about tech. Nope, magic.

Huh... -Also everyone is chronically stupid when it comes to tech, and even just normal "muggle" things, it's an entire field of education to figure out what human stuff does, that's why everything has this weird medieval vibe. And no, they couldn't "literally just go out and check it out." For some reasons the Wizards like dying out and being stupid, and pooping on the floor and magicking it away. Magic.

What about the schools? -Oh you mean the like 5 schools for millions of students? Eh forget about them. Hogwarts is the only one that makes any lick of sense in terms of size. You'll love to hear that the entirety of Asia has like 1-2 schools, and it's called something like "Magic castle" in real bad google-Japanese. Btw, don't expect any effort having been put in the names or places of other Wizard places, the author didn't give a shit to hire some editors to make sure she didn't just write some pointlessly dumb shit in that regard. And btw, please ignore other tensions because clearly Wizards would not have any kind of social tension across borders.

What about big events in the human world? -They don't care, they dealt with Wizard Hitler conveniently at the same time as WW2.

What about deadly sicknesses and their cures? -... yeah nah fuck the muggles. Magic. Also always hated how absolute braindead every thing is. Spells exist to find out what someone's last spell was. Is that used when some dude gets accused of murder? Of course not! How absurd.

--

HP has magnificent sense of place.

Personally, I care far more about that than about internally consistent world building of the type SF fanboys jerk off to, at least in most genres.

(EXCEPT FOR AGE OF SAIL! TACTICS, BABY! HOW DARE PEOPLE ADD ANACHRONISTIC OR FANTASY TECH!!!)

But yes, when people try to say HP has good "world building", they mean that it has good vibes and that it feels good if you don't look deeply. They do not mean the economy makes sense.

[ponett]

Was rereading your FFXVI article the other day and I got curious to know why you don’t like Bravely Default and Octopath. I agree that Octopath is a tedious dumpster fire, but I quite liked the Bravely series apart from That One Bit of Default (and also the entirety of BD2, which plays a lot more like Octopath and is therefore dogshit). I’d be interested to hear your thoughts in more detail, if you’re willing to share?

I will definitely say that I liked what I played of Bravely Default 1 (the only one of the Bravely games I've touched) better than Octopath 1. It's not the worst. I can see how people who are more patient with it can get a lot out of it. I think most of my problems with it mainly come down to pacing. The story takes a long time to go anywhere, and the writing along the way didn't grab me. (Ringabel's constant womanizing certainly didn't help.) You unlock additional jobs slowly. It felt like I had to stop and grind a lot, either to level my jobs or just to have enough gold to buy shit. Compared to the whirlwind pace of the classic FFs it was riffing on, it felt like I was making very little progress during the time I played

But the thing that really bothered me is that, even in the early game, bosses are massive damage sponges with tons of HP that take forever to fight. My casters would run out of MP halfway through the fight, and because of how rare and expensive ethers were I'd have no way to restore their MP, so I'd just limp along to the end of the fight without magic. It was miserable. Most old school JRPGs are also pretty strict about MP recovery items, sure, but in those games boss fights tend to be MUCH shorter until later in the game, and they're generally designed so that going in with a full HP/MP party already puts you at an advantage. Those games also have items like tents so that you can restore your party at save points, whereas Bravely seemingly just expects you to turn off encounters and walk all the way back to the nearest inn. These are VERY strange design decisions in a game that's trying so hard to be accessible and low-friction, to the point that you can just turn off random encounters whenever you want. This balancing feels like the worst of both worlds when it comes to classic and modern JRPG design

I can pinpoint the exact moment in the story that was my last straw, though, about six hours into the game. I took a photo of it. It was this:

In a better story, I could roll my eyes at this line and move on. But I was already having a generally unpleasant time, and the story felt like it had barely gone anywhere in six whole hours. (By that point in FF6 you could be nearing the opera!! In Chrono Trigger you'd probably be in Magus' friggin' castle!!!!!) So I decided it was time to cut my losses

I took this as an opportunity to just go and play FF5, rather than a modern game that's imitating it. I still need to actually beat FF5 someday (I am terrible about finishing long games because ADHD etc. etc.), but god, I loved what I played of it, and it really just highlighted how much better it is than Bravely Default. WAY better story pacing, way better bosses, you unlock the jobs way quicker, the party is way more likeable. It was still a game where I found myself grinding, but in FF5 it felt like I was actively making the choice to invest time in my character builds because I was having fun with those systems, rather than feeling forced to grind for gold or whatever

TL;DR the moral of this story is that everyone should play FF5

#anon #ask

[sevengraces]

I love that throughout the series Murderbot is both:

- one of the most spiteful beings I’ve ever had the pleasure of being the narrator in a book I read,

- and also so immensely compassionate 24/7 towards its companions and acquaintances regardless of personal opinions

———

Like yes,

-it’s internal monologue through almost every fight is I wanna win and if I have to die to take down this fucker I will, it just doesn’t deserve to win 

-While also, addressing every single bot kind of entity with this level of respect, comradery, and attachment, regardless of so-called sentience or sapience. Even going through extra steps to protect Guarthin and free the comfortunit despite how harsh it behaves towards the both of them.

———

The only notable exceptions I can recall to this sort of inherent respect it has is with the other bot/human constructs (ie comfortunits/combatunits/occasionally other secunits), which I imagine is the self-loathing talking,,, and that is something that improves measurably throughout the series at least in regards to comfort and sec units- which does imply possible change in regard for combatunits !!!

———

Like I know, this is like the point of the book or whatever but there’s not like a lotta moments in which I go

“man murderbot, You just kind of disregarded the like personhood (for lack of a better term) of that being.”

because like, there are a lot of books, in which,, despite the overarching moral being something to the effect of

[treat people well,] or

[everyone deserves respect]

there’s almost always exceptions to that rule that are implied or stated within the text despite the inherent contradictions it makes to what the author is trying to teach you (think hp w the supposed moral being found family but the plot being utterly reliant on blood ties above all else)

It’s just ridiculously refreshing to read something and not have to watch the author backpedal on their thesis once they get to the world building,,,,,

#murderbot #the murderbot diaries #grace is talking #don’t take my opinions of HP seriously cause I don’t give a shit #meta analysis #literature #theory

[sideprince]

If I'm honest I think the way the Deathly Hallows were made into a theme in the HP books is much more interesting than the whole Christ allegory, especially since it's a bit more original. I mean, sure, the Tale of the Three Brothers borrows heavily from the European storytelling tradition as filtered through the homogenized lens of the Grimm Brothers - the number three, the two older brothers being rash and unthinking and the youngest being wise, the outwitting of a dangerous foe, the lesson that brute force and bending nature's order will only end badly, etc. But there's still something interesting and original there, and I find that much more exciting than pinpointing how Christian tropes manifest in a children's story that follows them without building on them or raising questions.

What I find particularly fascinating about the Hallows theme is the way it connects to the characters, and how the three brothers and the objects they represent come to be reflected in three of the most key characters in HP:

Harry, Voldemort, and Snape are so inextricably connected, but even though the only moment they're all in the same place is when Snape is killed, it feels like Snape's the one whose journey to that moment is the most clearly laid out. It's the third time we know him to be in the Shrieking Shack: the first, when he's nearly killed by Lupin-turned-werewolf but escapes unscathed, and the second, when he corners Lupin and Black in PoA and is knocked unconscious sustaining a head wound. With each visit to the Shrieking Shack he inches closer to his own death metaphorically.

It's no secret that each Hallow is connected to or representative of one of these characters.

The Deathstick/Elder Wand is Voldemort: he's its penultimate wielder and even before possessing it, his own wand might as well be a death stick. He kills with impunity and without remorse. It's said several times in the series that ultimately all the death and destruction Harry, Ron, and Hermione fight against comes down to Voldemort; even the Death Eaters do what they do in his service. (And, while I take issue with the simplistic and naive perspective it conveys, the story makes it clear that as soon as Voldemort dies, the chaos he has wrought on the wizarding world is already beginning to be set right again.) Harry meets Voldemort in the forest at the end of DH in order to meet his death because it's Voldemort who brings it about.

The Resurrection Stone is Snape: we find out in DH that he has spent the entire septology haunted by the heartbreak and regret losing a loved one caused, and everything he's done has been in service of her. Though he never possesses the Resurrection Stone, he might as well - we see through his patronus that the memory of Lily is with him "always." Interestingly, it's also the Resurrection Stone that sets him on his final path - it's the stone in the ring that curses Dumbledore's hand, leading to Snape agreeing to kill him, and to him making the Unbreakable Vow. Killing Dumbledore draws him into Voldemort's trust even more, but also puts a target on his back. So, like the second Peverell brother, Snape's main drive is a departed loved one, his devotion to whom ultimately dooms him. The more he tries to keep her alive and honor her memory, the more she draws him to his death.

As in the Tale of the Three Brothers, death claims both the first and second brother.

It's the third brother who escapes death and meets him on his own terms through his use of the Invisibility Cloak. Harry literally wears it into the forest at the end of DH and throws it off to meet his death. Harry starts the story having escaped Death and working his way towards it on his own terms. When he dies, it's because he is ready and he chooses to - and once again, he escapes it. Harry is also closely connected to the youngest Peverell brother, being descended from him, and as per the Beadle the Bard's story, the cloak gets handed down from parent to child so Harry is its rightful owner.

Finally, there's the character of Death, whose parallel is, reluctantly but determinedly, Dumbledore. There's an irony in his ownership of the Elder Wand, in that he learned from the mistakes of his youth and understands and eschews its capacity for death and destruction. Even so, he becomes a character who plays a key role in the death of several other characters, not least of whom are Snape, Harry, and Voldemort. His main goal throughout the series is to bring about Voldemort's death. In the process, he sacrifices both Harry and Snape (not to mention countless others). Dumbledore is also the person who gives all three Hallows to their ultimate owner, Harry. In the process, it's from Dumbledore that Voldemort takes the Elder Wand, and it's through Dumbledore's actions that Snape is doomed by the Resurrection Stone, not to mention he's the one to give the Invisibility Cloak to Harry. When Harry escapes death as a baby, it's Dumbledore who leaves him with the Dursley knowing he will return for him later (or will do so through a proxy), sort of - but not quite - foreshadowing that death will come for Harry when the time is right. When Harry is killed by Voldemort, it's Dumbledore who meets him in Kings Cross limbo.

Interestingly, of these four characters it's only Voldemort who is not connected to all three hallows. Dumbledore has, at some point, had each in his possession, and at the end of the story Harry possesses all three and is the only person who knows where the Resurrection Stone is in the forest. Snape is the only person we see use the Invisibility Cloak without an invitation to do so from Harry (in the Shrieking Shack in PoA), and he's the only one aside from Dumbledore and Harry to be connected with the Resurrection Stone. Though he never does so, he was meant by Dumbledore to possess the Elder Wand, and it's the direct reason he's killed. There's an interesting parallel there, based on what Dumbledore says to Harry in King's Cross Limbo:

Harry is obviously the Specialest Boy™️ because he's the protagonist, so he's fit to unite the Hallows (which he never quite does - he uses the Resurrection Stone while wearing the Cloak, but drops the stone well before he physically takes possession of the Elder Wand and wields it). Dumbledore nevertheless has the Cloak for a decade between James' death and giving it to Harry, by which point he has had the Elder Wand for much longer. He takes possession of the Stone when he takes Marvolo's ring, and in the process experiences a parallel to the second brother's story (similar to Snape) as his efforts to reconnect to a deceased loved one instead sets him on the path towards his death. Snape, as stated above, is similarly connected to all three Hallows at one point or other.

As interesting as I find all this, I feel like these parallels and, really, this theme, could have been worked out more throughout the septology and been dealt with in richer, more wide-reaching ways. Maybe it didn't occur to Rowling (boo, hssss) until she was well into writing the series, whereas the Horcruxes clearly had, since Voldemort's inability to die is established in PS and the first Horcrux crops up in CoS. There's a clumsiness in the way Hallows vs. Horcruxes becomes the great dilemma in DH, and if the themes each represents had been established early on and been an undercurrent through the whole series it would have been more powerful.

That's not to say that the themes connected to each Hallow - death, loss, choosing wisdom over power - aren't overarching ones on their own. But Harry's contending with them against Voldemort's focus on that power and his fear of death alongside his cavalier implementation of it ends up being a bit flat, because Harry doesn't waver. It's one of the things Dumbledore points out when they discuss the prophecy, that because Voldemort killed his parents, Harry was never at risk of being seduced by all that Voldemort represents. So even though the themes are there, the tensions between them aren't really present in Harry - again, the protagonist - until the second half of the last book. Not until HBP do we start to see Voldemort's past and understand the parallels between him and Harry, and not until the Prince's Tale chapter in DH do we really see how Snape fits into this trio of "abandoned boys." The fleshing out of his character was sacrificed for the sake of the big reveal of his motivations and I think it would have been more interesting to have moments throughout the series that turned out to be foreshadowing along the theme of the Hallows, and not just ones that clarify his allegiances through the insight into his life.

#meta #long post

[slexenskee]

Would quirks like Stain's work on Satoru? The thought just popped into my head and it won't leave. Like how does it even work yknow?? Is there a range, is there a limit on how old the blood can be or can stain just. eat a blood clot and it would still paralyze the target? Sorry I got a bit off topic but like quirks. How.

Basically, are there any quirks that can get past his Infinity? And how do quirks work in this verse?

Short answer: yes it would work in theory but in practice probably not. And no, there are no quirks that can get past Infinity. At least not in a conventional way.

Ok I'm not a huge MHA expert but my understanding of quirks is that they're powered by "Plus Alpha Energy", which is basically an amalgamation of physical and genetic traits that make up a person's quirk. I treat it identical to Chakra in Naruto, or Cursed Energy in Jujutsu Kaisen - meaning its like a secondary energy source separate from their physical energy. Kind of like how in video games you have your HP bar but you also usually have a secondary MP bar for spellcasting, and you can run out of Magic even though you still have full Health. But more like the above examples, because I believe in MHA its possible to die /severely injure yourself if you overuse your quirk, so they're not entirely exclusive systems.

According to the wiki there are 3 main types of quirks: transformation types, emitter types, and heteromorphic types. I don't believe they're mutually exclusive, bc someone like Hawks is sort of heteromorphic + emitter (since his feathers are telekinetic). But they all require the use of Plus Alpha Energy. Even for emitter types / telekinetic types, they're using Plus Alpha Energy to control those powers.

For the sake of my sanity, I am treating PAE (I'm going to start shortening it I'm sorry it's annoying to type) like any other energy wave - soundwaves, microwaves, visual light, radiowaves, etc., in that it still needs to move through physical space to get to its target, even if you can't see it. So just like any other energy wave, it can be blocked. I have to imagine this is canon, since quirk-blocking handcuffs exist. (?) Or maybe that's fanon idk. They exist in my story lol.

For the most part, PAE is really only used to interact with the world in a certain way. Examples:

Shouto's emitter PAE creates fire/ice across his skin, and he can push it out in various ways and create ice walls/fire blasts etc but they all have to start at his skin, which is why he can't just point at a building and light it on fire. Katsuki's Explosion is similar.

Eraserheads emitter PAE is in his eyeballs but reacts telekinetically, because he doesn't need to touch people to negate their quirk, just look at them. But PAE is still energy, even though his quirk is activated telekinetically it still needs to travel through reality

Blocking PAE, with handcuffs or Tartarus cells or other quirks like Erasure, stops the PAE from working and therefore stops the quirk. So even 'instantaneous', ranged telekinetic quirks like Erasure, or I imagine any amalgamation of mind control quirks, could theoreteically be stopped by anything that can block PAE. Because PAE is an energy wave, it's possibly for Infinity to block it.

In canon JJK we already see that Gojo can block soundwaves if/when he wants (fight scene with Jogo) - it's not unrealistic to assume he can block all various types of energy waves, radio, ultrasound, etc.

TL;DR: No Quirk can get past Infinity, because it's an energy wave and Infinity can block those.

However!

Infinity is not infallible, because Gojo is not a robot (or actually a god) and has human limitations. He almost always has it up in some capacity (as its canon that he can pick and choose what filters through, i.e., soundwaves and the visible light spectrum etc, can normally pass through) but he does pull the 'physical' barrier down for a lot of reasons.

I also headcanon that he's not as religious about keeping it up at all times as he was in JJK.

So for random examples:

Stain: Let's say he somehow acquires and ingests Gojo's blood. His PAE would then kick in and he would try to telekinetically stop Gojo's body. That PAE still has to travel through space to get to Gojo, and Gojo's Infinity expands the space between himself and the universe endlessly, so it would get stuck forever trying to make contact with Gojo and can never do it. So nope it wouldn't work. ❌

Toga: Again, through a very improbable but not impossible series of events she somehow gets Gojo's blood. Steals it from his regular doctor or something, whatever. She ingests it, and can turn into him/has access to his quirk. Idk if she'd have access to his Cursed Energy, because it's still unclear how much of Cursed Energy is Body vs. Soul. Technically, her quirk does work because it doesn't need to cross Infinity ✅

Naomasa/Makoto: This one was a tough one, definitely had to puzzle it out! I believe their quirks work on the response of the person, not by forcing their quirk onto others. So, Naomasa asks a question. This is just a normal soundwave, interacts like any other human voice. But then Gojo responds. It's his response that Naomasa's PAE interacts with, and since that response already traveled out of his Infinity barrier, Infinity is useless to stop a quirk like this. ✅

Ragdoll: Another one I had to ponder. This would depend on how Ragdoll's quirk works, which we don't know. In my story, I've decided it works by ingesting the PAE of the world around her, analyzing it, and putting that on a mental map. Because her PAE works by absorbing/reading the PAE of others, she's not pushing it out into the world around her in any way. It's Gojo who's pushing out his PAE, because Infinity is a one-way barrier (Gojo's cursed techniques/energy, his voice/soundwaves, and his kinetic/physical force all can pass the barrier). So Ragdoll's quirk would work on Gojo, because it doesn't need to try to pass his Infinity barrier. Gojo's PAE naturally leaves his barrier on its own. ✅

Eri: Her Rewind canonically doesn't need physical touch, if I'm not mistaken? I feel like i saw a panel somewhere where it's going haywire and affects everyone in her vicinity. Either way it's irrelevant, it still doesn't work on Infinity. It emits from her horn and is pushed out into the world around her either, by touch or possibly telekinetically, which means Infinity will stop the PAE before it reaches Gojo. And she wouldn't accidentally hurt Gojo either, even if he had Infinity down already because he's carrying her or whatever, because his Six Eyes would be able to see the surge of PAE in her horn before it manifests and react accordingly by pulling Infinity up. ❌

Shinsou: His quirk is basically him lacing his voice with PAE. Because its traveling through the air as both an energy wave and a sound wave, it gets stopped by Infinity. ❌

Basically, the rule of thumb for whether Gojo would be affected by someone's quirk is how their PAE interacts with the world. Any quirk that a user internalizes/doesn't push out of themselves will work on him, while anything that tries to force its way through his barrier will not.

Gojo >>> Quirk ✅

Gojo <<< Quirk ❌

#fic may death never stop you #ask #mdnsy FAQ

[ayyyyysexual]

void, can i have a pitch for dungeon meshi. i'm on the fence on if i should watch/read it

*crackes knuckles* YOU CAME TO THE RIGHT PLACE SAGE

okay first of all. do you enjoy autism? do you like infodumps? well I hope so bc our main guy is the personification of "monsters (specifically monster based cuisine) are my special interest and i will take any opportunity to tell ppl why they're so cool"

i call Laois (on the left) our main guy because, at least in my opinion, he's the co-protagonist alongside my absolute fave of all time (sorry izutsumi)

Marcille!!!

she is. literally so amazing.

one thing i was worried about when i started the manga was that she was just gonna be the "damsel in distress/punching bag" of the party, especially as the only girl in the party for a while (her girlfriend got eaten and her frenemy ditched the party, diversity loss ik)

BUT SHE IS NOT!!

she has a worse time than most in the early chapters, but it becomes very clear she's a glass canon (which basically means like, very very powerful, but balanced out by the the fact they have low defense usually, like wizards in dnd having low HP/not being able to wear heavy armour) and not just like. there to be The Token Girl Who Gets Saved

also idk if most people officially refer to her as the co-protagonist but it really does seem like she gets equal focus in the story as Laois does to me, so I call her that

anyway, now that ive gotten the marcille rant out of my system-

the plot!

yknow when people say "[character] is haunting the narrative"? yeah that's basically our girl Falin Touden, sister of Laios, girlfriend best friend of Marcille, and pretty much the glue holding that was holding the party together.

so, when she gets eaten by a dragon it kind of throws the party into disarray. with no food, no money, two less party members and their friend slowly digesting in a dragons stomach, they decide they have to venture into the dungeon with nothing but the equipment on their back and laios's assurance that they can... probably eat monsters safely to survive

luckily, they run into a monster eating expert who decides to join their party to teach them how to eat a balanced monster diet so they can save Falin before she's digested!

and thats basically the deal. its silly, the character dynamics are delightful, the story can get very emotional and touching at times and the world building is absolutely INCREDIBLE and every new character introduced is always so entertaining and amazing

wow that got long!

anyway everyone go read dungeon meshi rn its so fun

#dungeon meshi #dunmeshi #marcille donato #laios touden #delicious in dungeon #ayyynswers #mutuals :D

[fandoomrants]

Okay, so I'm fully into my HP obsession again (honestly, I don't care what anyone says or how much the world tries to cancel this fandom. This is my childhood, it's a part of me that's always there and I eventually go back to between the other things) and therefore, the Marauders era's obsession.

And like, I've always loved them for some reason. Honestly, when I found fandoms and stuff and saw they're actually almost a fandom on it's own, I was so happy and relieved that I'm not the only one. (I realised at one point that I love HP yet I've never read a fic that's not about them from this fandom...)

But I've been thinking about some things and also came across some random videos summarizing what we know about them (because there are so many hcs that most people accept as common that it's easy to forget the real facts) and now I have so many thoughts I need to share because they haunt me.

-They were like... Big jerks. Especially James and Sirius. Mostly them, tbh. Like, not only because we see them from Snape's perspective in memories and he hates them but because, well, they were mean. Especially Sirius (he's my absolutely favourite character but still), he's done pretty shitty things. I think James mostly had beef with Snape but they were overall kinda bullies.

-Even though I love Wolfstar just as much as 90% of this fandom (I mean the Marauders era), I think they're a famous ship just because we get to see interactions between them while alive and not just flashbacks but I don't think they were really close back in the days. James and Sirius were the ones extremely close and maybe if we had seen extended Marauders' interactions or they were eventually all alive, then most likely Wolfstar wouldn't have been that popular.

-I'm 99% sure that the great friendship between Lily and Remus is completely fan-made. I believe Remus was the most reasonable (but nobody can convince me he wasn't the mastermind behind 99% of their pranks at the same time) and wasn't into being mean with anyone so it's possible that they were interacting on much better terms than her and James (I mean, until they got together) but I don't think they could have ever been called friends.

-In fact, canonly, Sirius was taller than Remus. (What a shock, right?)

-Lots of people say stuff like "Who was the fifth guy in their dorm?" and there are many theories about it but do we even have a proof that the four of them were in the same dorm at all? Nope.

-Now that's my personal opinion but... I absolutely believe they were really good friends and while at school at least, nobody was left out intentionally but... Maybe Peter betrays them in the end because of some build up stuff throughout the years. We know James and Sirius meet on Hogwarts Express and immediately become best friends. We don't know when Remus and Peter join exactly but it must have been shortly after, I think Peter is pretty much the last who joins. Seeing how some of the people are very good friends, it's a bit hard to truly feel a part of a friend group and might make you feel a bit left out at times (but that's basically a rule in every friend group, tbh. There are the two best friends and well... the other, still close friends).There's also the fact that Peter canonly wears the Sorting hat for over five minutes so here you have another episode of feeling kind of left out. Then later they learn about Remus and they all decide to support him and even learn how to transform and Peter is the last to learn how to do it too. Then even later, James and his family take Sirius in. What I'm trying to say is, we have no canon information of any of them doing anything for Peter and I'm not saying that they weren't good friends, it's just that he was exposed to them doing stuff for each other, and like, really big stuff too (granted, it was really all about helping a friend in a big need) but he was never the center of it + some occasions that might have left him feel kind of uncertain and uneasy about himself like not being sorted for a longer time or needing help to transform. And the result might be feeling emotionally distant from the group and with desire to prove himself worthy of something. So, that's maybe why he finally turns to Voldemort.

-They canonly don't trust Remus much by the end and even suspect he might be Voldemort's spy.

-There is a big chance that Harry and Remus really meet when Harry is 13, meaning that he never saw him as a baby.

-Speaking of feeling left out earlier... I think Remus might have also felt so more often than not. I think they were all into innocent pranks but he wasn't into actively being a jerk, especially considering that he was someone who would have gotten lots of hate if people knew about the werewolf thing. The stupid prank in 5th year must have been a real punch in the gut too. The fact that he gets to stop interacting with them and they even start mistrusting him. Lots of things, really. AND HE STILL NEVER BETRAYED THEM, WAS NEVER A JERK TO ANY OF THEM, AND GOT TO LIVE FOR 12 YEARS BELIEVING THAT ONE OF HIS BEST FRIENDS KILLED THE OTHER TWO!!!

Okay. I made myself enough sad for one evening. Might add more to this.

#harry potter #hp #hogwarts #marauders era #marauders #james potter #sirius black #remus lupin #peter pettigrew #lily evans #wolfstar #rant

[jlhynde-insanitybrilliance]

UDLTTOM WORLDBUILDING RAMBLES: American Wizarding Society vs British Wizarding Society

This is like the 3rd installment of what is quickly becoming a series of long ranting posts about the lore surrounding Harry Potter & a current time-travel au I'm writing on AO3. But you don't need to have read the previous two posts to understand this one. (I still link them for those interested: pt 1, pt 2, pt. 3.) .

I think it's been fairly established that JK doesn't have much awareness of anything outside of Britain when it comes to world building. I've seen posts discussing how unrealistic the magical schools are and such. (Which obviously there can't be just 11 schools. I refuse to believe it. It exceeds my suspension of disbelief.) But this post isn't about that, but the whole societal structure of the American Wizarding society as a whole. I recently started watching my through the Fantastic Beasts films (I know I'm late to the show.) and as an American I can't help but to address some of this...

There's a lot to address & I'm sorry if this post gets a off on some tangents. But I'm just gonna jump right in with the things that bother me most.

1)The MACUSA reeks of British colonization.

As we all know, North America wasn't unpopulated when people from Europe started arriving. Native Americans, the Mayans, the Aztecs, Inuit people, and while some of them were nomadic others had established cities & advanced communities for that day in age. It was the religious zealot Protestants, aka Puritians, being driven out of England that pushed into these communities and brought with them this harmful religious dogma and pushed these people out of the homes and their lands. Like if you read into any of these cultures and their histories, you'll see that these communities were accepting of magic and in the HP world were probably very much wizards themselves.

And so the MACUSA doesn't make sense to me having been founded before the American Revolution, but after the Salem Witch Trials because in all likelihood wizards were being persecuted long before all that. Like I can't believe that the indigenous communities wouldn't have formed some sort of collective in order to combat these foreign invaders from overseas—Especially if they were wizards.

I mean so there had to be something before that, right? Like in all likelihood what I see happening is that these British wizards pushed themselves in with the Puritians (for whatever reason) and in the process brought with them their backwards views on muggles & blood politics & classism which wasn't a part of the original society. Because if you look at the indigenous histories you'll see that medicine men/women were respected members of their communities. Wizards and Muggles lived alongside each other just fine. But then the colonizers came & ruined that harmonious dynamic between the magical and nonmagical.

And that it's called the Magical Congress of the United States of America...It doesn't make sense unless that name came about after the American Revolution. Because before that it was referred to as the 13 colonies. Then it also took some time after the American Revolution for the 13 colonies to expand into the United States. (American didn't get all 50 states until 1959 with the purchase of Alaska from Russia and the forceful occupation of Hawaii.)

It makes more sense that there was a power struggle between two or more opposing Magical governments for the control of the Americas. And this would lead to a sort of Wizarding Civil War. Between the indigenous magical communities and the British, & Spanish, & French Colonies. It's a big place, huge. & it would be diced up and divided I think much more than than the muggle/no-maj community/government is.

The MACUSA being only on the East Coast makes more sense to me. (It also explains how there can only be one wizarding school in MA.) And how that school is a sister school of Hogwarts & how they are structured so similarly. Because watching the Fantastic Beasts films I don't feel like I'm watching American wizards, it more feels like I'm watching British Wizards with American accents.

And then the rest of the country is split up into districts or regions (much like it is in real life with: East Coast, Deep South, West Coast, Midwest.) where the indigenous practices and cultures are still prevalent.

I also don't buy into this idea that France and Spain would abandon their stake on the Continent. So in reality, it's more believable that Spanish Wizards would control Florida and expand all the way up to Arkansas, French wizards would Have control of Louisiana & Mississippi, East Texas, parts of Oklahoma, the British Wizards would have the colonies & maybe parts of the Great Lakes area like Illinois or Ohio, and then the rest of North America would be divided up into different territories amongst the indigenous communities.

Which then brings me to the second thing that bothers me: Rappaport's Law.

2) Rappaport's Law is a heavy-handed allegory for Jim Crowe & Segregation Laws.

As a white person, there's a lot in this topic that I am likely under informed and underqualified to unpack. It is a subject that would be better dissected by someone who understands the cultural histories and nuances better than me. But I read up a lot on random histories (because my Adhd brain leads me down some interesting research rabbit holes & I find myself fascinated by lore histories and folktales.) And I've learned a bit about the various histories pertaining to the Trans Atlantic Slave trade and how things like Voodoo made their way to America through the enslavement of various African tribes.

And again back to the British colonization, slaves were sold to the British by rival tribes & then some of those people made their way to North America when the colonies were formed , but that there was also a significant number of slaves that were indigenous to North America as well.

But how the indigenous communities were structured and how the tribal communities were structure were not all that dissimilar from each other. They both have an awareness of magic and similar spiritual practices. Again magic coexisting with muggles and what makes the most sense was that rival tribes would in fact sell the wizards into slavery and keep the squib/no-maj members of the village because they were less of a threat.

Which in turn would lead to most of the magical communities in North America being POC. Like honestly, I think they are the majority in the Americas. And the Rappaport Law, preventing the intermingling of no-majs & wizards would be heavily criticized because of the similarities to Jim Crowe and Segregation Laws.

And you might try to argue that because of the Statute of Secrecy, wizards wouldn't have any awareness of those muggle laws. But I argue that because of Slavery and most of the wizards being either slaves or negatively impacted by the European settlers would be very, very aware of those laws and prejudices & be actively fighting against them.

Like it was wizards creating and maintaining the underground railroad. It was wizards getting other wizards out and getting them away, regardless of whether or not they were magical because they were all slaves. And they would in fact still have muggles living side-by-side with them in these magical communities and spitting in the face of the Statute of Secrecy. And entire generations of no-majs would live and die in these communities and possibly even leave these communities to assimilate with other muggles and what not, but the American wizards would not be as cut off from the no-maj world like their British counterparts are.

3) Blood Politics would never be able to take root there.

Because most of them are unable to trace back their own bloodlines. It's why Americans don't have house elves working for them because it's Slavery, which they spent centuries combating and trying to escape. And why Grindelwald couldn't gain a foothold there because he was European and was actively killing muggleborns, squibs, no-majs like that wasn't their own people.

And this would also mean that, technologically, the magical communities in North America are more advanced. They are not stagnating like they are in Britain. Wizards are not a dying breed. They have a healthy growing population and low inbreeding rates, and advancements in magic and no-maj sciences. It's the sort of strength Grindelwald and Voldemort would want to recruit for their causes, but with how the majority of the continent is structured would never be able to.

[thank you for coming to my tedtalk.]

#hp fandom #harry potter #harry potter meta #udlttom #udlttom worldbuilding rambles #north america wizards vs british wizards #tomarry fic #time travel au #macusa #rambling thoughts on wizards in north america #non canon compliant #poc in harry potter verse

[heehoothefool]

I FINALLY FUCKING FINISHED SIDE ORDER

SPOILERS BELOW AS I TALK ABOUT IT

Okay so first and foremost congrats to Nintendo for making a genuinely fun new way of playing the game that felt really inventive and fresh. "Splatoon Roguelite" was not a concept I'd ever imagined seeing, and it certainly wasn't something I was entirely sure I'd enjoy when it was confirmed as a reality.

And yet, I found myself having an absolutely wonderful time with this game! It's not so hard it's impossible, but it's also not so easy that I get bored, striking a really nice balance of keeping me both deeply invested in the gameplay without ripping my hair out in a fit of gamer rage.

I think like many others, I too would have liked maybe a few more bosses in the boss floor rotation, but genuinely I'm more than happy to over look that just by virtue of how fun the game turned out to be. I do think maybe Parallel Canon could have stood to be a bit tougher, it really just feels like an Octoling Onslaught level from past solo modes, but that's about my only real complaint for how the bosses themselves play.

The music kicks ass like usual, and I liked the way they handled the story so that both players who really only committed to the one Big Run and players who, like me, went for all the palettes, had a good chance of leaving the dlc rather satisfied with their answers.

In terms of palettes, I was genuinely surprised with how good most of them felt, and was especially surprised when I found myself sincerely enjoying palettes with weapons I normally would despise! Finding out that Marina's palette was actually genuinely viable, and possibly one of the stronger palettes I the game, was such a rush of joy to me. In no world had I ever considered a brella, paired with a sprinkler and ink storm, would ever be a viable combination in a game like this. And yet it was so genuinely fun to play with and build and very quickly opened my eyes to very creative palette building methods!

Some part of me does wish the order clone weapons you got for beating a run weren't just Skins, because some of those kits were genuinely really good and unique and I would have loved to play with them in a competitive setting, but I do understand why Nintendo, and especially the Splatoon Team, didn't lock An Entire 12 Unique Weapon Kits behind a paid DLC, and I appreciate it deeply. (A new Luna kit would have been nice tho)

Also, holy fuck was 8's palette hell. Don’t get me wrong, it was a very good and enjoyable challenge, but also I reached Overlorder like 6 different times and kept dying on the final phase because I turned off my Damage Reduction Hack in favor of Increased Damage and An Extra Life while still being able to have like. 12 chips. So every enemy shy of the little bastards and the sprinkler bitches would one shot my armor. Not to mention Reef Slider spam. I kind of wish the chip reduction vs. active hacks wasn't as unforgiving as it is, but that's a personal preference and not really a complaint I'd genuinely launch against the game. I was just having a rough time due to the splattershot's low damage compared to the Jelleton's high hp. I felt like I'd been handed an Arospray with a little more range and a slower fire rate, but no added damage, and been launched into a profreshional Salmon Run match Alone. A really good weapon if you want a real challenge from the game.

Overall I loved this, and I'm definitely gonna make a few more runs to try and get the Prlz to buy out Cipher's shop. I already have all the gear and banners, just gotta pick up the stickers and decorations.

#slime speaks #side order #side order spoilers #splatoon 3 #splatoon

[sitp-recs]

HP Rec Fest, Day 12

Today’s prompt challenges me once again as I never rarely start fics before they’re completed. By the Grace was the last WIP I followed since the beginning so it’s been a few years, but I’m always willing to make an exception for 25 Days of Drarry and @hprecfest gave me some extra motivation to find another advent fic to follow. This time I don’t have rare pair WIPs to share so I’m reccing two Drarry WIPs, one fairly recent and the other a 2020 fic I’ve been obsessed with ever since day one. Thrilled to be reccing two of my favourite authors here, cannot praise these two gems enough:

Day 12) A WIP you're following:

A Christmas Miracle by @sleepstxtic (E)

Draco is a world-renowned Magi-Diagnostician and Harry is a Cursebreaking Healer, both working in St. Mungo's. They're not-quite-friends, not-quite-lovers, who argue at work and have sex on the weekends. And they're both fine with it, thank you very much. But when a mysterious attack in the hospital leaves Draco trapped in a coma, Harry must do all he can to save him. All the while, an inexplicable, deadly, children's illness is spreading through wizarding London. Oh, and there's some Time Magic thrown into the mix.

just look at that summary! this fic was made for me and after reading the first few paragraphs (such a delightful opening scene!) I knew I’d be breaking my no wip rule and I regret nothing. that, and I also happen to be a slut for work colleagues slash fuck buddies, and Kat delivers in spades as per 😌 this fic is a mix of my fave things like competent Healer!Draco, time travel magic (!!!), case fic, delicious banter between this insufferable Draco and charming Harry. I’m having so much fun and can’t wait to see where this is going!

In The Dark by @bixgirl1 (E)

In the aftermath of an apocalypse, Harry receives an order to find and bring Draco Malfoy nearly a thousand miles, to the tenuous safety of Hogwarts. But more than distance separates them from their goal. The world has fallen, and death is hungry.

I cannot begin to describe how obsessed I am with this wip. even if it never gets finished it will have been so so worth it because this right here is one of the most vivid, creative and impressive world buildings I’ve ever seen. the urgent and dangerous atmosphere is superb and I love love love how Harry and Draco find solace in each other while facing a grim and terrifying inferi apocalypse. brilliant storytelling and delicious slow burn with creative magic, tender romance and heart stopping fight-or-flight sequences. a masterpiece!

#hprecfest2023 #day 12 #WIPs

[hptriadfest]

HP Triad Fest 2023/4 Anonymous Master List

An act of love

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HPTriad5/works/54771832

Summary: AU where the war goes on longer. Harry appears on the doorstep of an old friend, asking for help.

Building Bridges

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HPTriad5/works/53607814

Summary: Harry and Hermione have been together since the Tri-Wizard tournament. When Hermione goes back to Hogwarts for 8th year, she falls in love with Pansy Parkinson, who was a spy for her father, Severus Snape. Meanwhile, Harry is in the process of turning 12 Grimmauld Place into 'The Bridges,' a place where everyone is welcome. Harry and Hermione welcome Pansy into their relationship, home and bed.

Clearing

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HPTriad5/works/54782968

Summary: In the face of Lily's death, James finds healing in familiar faces.

Fates Temporal

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HPTriad5/works/54751654

Summary: The fates were kind to Hermione during summer solstice

Flavours and Expectations

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HPTriad5/works/54319912

Summary: Ernie Macmillan once thought he’d lead the wizarding world into a golden era. That was before he grew up and before he’d resigned himself to a future of running errands for his office like a delivery boy. A chance encounter with a former classmate reminds him that not only can people change, but that they’re also capable of affecting change in others. She’s sexy and confident and everything he’s ever wanted in a lover and for himself.

With Ernie a bit of a mess at work and at heart, the chances of finding love this late in life seem low. Can a saucy chef and the serpent slayer who guards her prove him wrong?

Follow the Pawprints

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HPTriad5/works/54154915

Summary: A man is sitting on the toilet in Victoria Park. Well, he’s also dead, but more importantly, he’s covered in pawprints. Luna and Susan go to poke the body. Cho tries to track down the culprit. You know, normal Tuesday things.

Harry’s Terrible, Awful, No Good, Very Bad Day

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HPTriad5/works/54387730

Summary: A terrible day has not-so-terrible consequences.

-----------------

Harry hurled his bag in the general direction of his desk and threw himself face down on…a...person?

He exhaled all the air in his lungs and even over the pounding in his ears, he felt the exhale and heard a groan from the man beneath him. His forehead dropped in mortification for a moment before he inhaled, smelling the lemongrass scent that means that Nott’s boyfriend has been around.

Sagging even more, he mumbled into the chest he faceplanted into, “This IS my bed, right?”

---------------

The Imperfect Art Of Taking The Piss As A Love Language

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HPTriad5/works/54718363

Summary: What better way to reveal your possibly very controversial but very happy relationship than just stopping hiding it and betting on which of your friends is the most oblivious and will take the longest to notice?

in the bend of your elbows.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HPTriad5/works/53482153

Summary: Hari doesn’t feel like he deserves his soulmates but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have soulmates.

The Missing Mate

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HPTriad5/works/53427460

Summary: Regulus can't seem to stay away from the lonely werewolf when he knows his brother is away. It's as if his animagus form is drawn to Remus.

pity the living

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HPTriad5/works/54032410

Summary: When moving into a new flat, it's normal to check the bedrooms for space, the bathrooms for mould and the kitchen for that indescribable thing that will drive your loved ones in even when nothing is cooking on the stove. Harry, Ron and Hermione, though, should have been much more concerned about the state of their living room because, whether they knew it or not, all of the important bits are going to happen right in the centre of a space they may yet to grow to call their home.

or: a look into the Golden Trio surviving their first year after the end of the War

Show me the constellations in your eyes

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HPTriad5/works/53646349

Summary: “I don’t need to look into your eyes to know my brother is fucking dead,” Sirius shouted, and his face was so cold, a futile attempt at hiding his sadness. “You need to leave.”

“I have Regulus’ eyes, don’t you see?” Regulus asked — begged.

“They look…” James began, walking closer to them now. “They look like his, Sirius.”

“They look like a Black’s eyes,” Sirius spat.

James shook his head. “Regulus had these little black flecks at the corners that always reminded me of a constellation… These are the same, Sirius.”

Or

When Regulus is reincarnated, the first thing on his bucket list is to make his way back to the two most important people in his life. For answers and for love.

They are yours, you are theirs, it’s that simple

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HPTriad5/works/54917875

Summary: They make it out like agreeing to live with someone is such a life-altering decision, such an adult thing to do, that when the moment comes you start to doubt yourself. It’s a war and I might only live so much, but do I want to? Do I really? Then someone dies, or someone’s house gets blown up and the only thing you think about is what if it was me? I’d have- they’re so- Why doesn’t in end already?!? And you realize that this big decision is you basically stopping drifting by and taking the reins of your life at least this one time.

The Unexpected

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HPTriad5/works/54926353

Summary: “The most beautiful love is the one that’s kept hidden, like a precious secret. A secret love is like a rose, delicate and beautiful, cherished and protected.”

Hermione has to go undercover for a mission because of poisoning and attacking of both wizards and muggles. What was thought to be a simple mission turns into more then bargained for.

The Beautiful Unexpected

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HPTriad5/works/54798061

***

Please don’t forget to leave our Mystery Authors some love and join us in the Discord to have some fun

Discord link: https://discord.gg/xnvYazKBxE

#hp triad fest #hp triad!fest #hp triad #polyamory #harry potter fests #Anonymous masterlist

[wisteria-lodge]

A question for you: would you sort a living person with whom you are not in communication, and without her express consent, but whose words and deeds are very much on public display? Specifically: J.K. Rowling sure thinks of herself as a heroic Lion Primary; what’s your call?

I have spent a long time thinking about this lady. Possibly too long. But here's what I've got.

She's a Bird. She *likes* Lion primaries, and she likes them in that way a lot of Birds do - Lions feel magical and moral and easy and good. That's why Gryffindor is her good-guy house, and that's why Gryffindors always get a pass when they do shady things. They were always doing it for good reasons, because that's just how Lion primaries are. They know what's good, just by kind of feeling it.

(obviously this isn't at all how it feels to be a Lion primary, but it can SEEM that way, if you're outside looking in.)

And so she likes Lion primaries, and surrounds herself with Lion primaries. And over time, seems to have filtered for the most fiery, if-you're-not-with-me-you're-my-enemy Exploded Lions imaginable. This could also be why she's not interrogating emotional pings when she really should. Like it's heartbreaking to read some of her essays - like, no JKR, that's not a reason, that's a trauma response you ought to be getting help for. But she thinks there's inherent goodness with going with your heart over your head.

Which is also probably why, for the last two decades, she's been slowly surrounding herself only with people who agree with her - effectively Exploding her own Bird primary. She is notoriously stubborn and difficult to work with, and I have that from first hand accounts... but just think how much better an editor could have made books 4-7. Or the Fantastic Beasts films. Or the Cursed Child (we all sort of collectively forgot about the Cursed Child.)

But I see the Bird! I see the Idealism, I see the mind that likes puzzles, and systems, and mysteries. And then I see her just kinda... be lazy about it. Not think though the implications. Be happy with only a very surface-level understanding. Not edit, or update, or interrogate her system. (We know that her worldbuilding is sloppy. We know she grabs existing problematic tropes and then kind of uses them as-is.)

The more I dig into to her, the more I'll come across bits of her system that just seem very... young. They'll be things like 'Good people have kids, or if they can't, then they take care of kids.' Or 'People with mobility aids are good.' That's one's so weird I just have to bring it up. It's very consistent, and comes with the reverse - 'People who use mobility aids they don't need are evil.' Barty Crouch jr. is the HP example, but that situation comes up like - a weird amount in her mystery novels.

(also, I can't prove it, but I think Lucius Malfoy got a much more sympathetic edit after Jason Isaacs started playing him with a cane. Of course that could also be just because... he has a kid... so he can't be BAD.)

Harry Potter, the character, is also very much a Bird Primary. When he acts on really strong emotions it's because they're - yep, trauma responses. Mostly he's trying to figure out his world, synthesize everything Dumbledore and the Weasleys and Hagrid and Sirius tell him, in order to build his own system.

And he's a really loud Lion secondary, the way I suspect JKR is too. Her response to all of this has just been to double down, do MORE, be LOUDER. If her royalties, or the reputation of her IP take a hit, she honestly does not seem to care.

She's not stupid and she's not evil. Hermione was a complicated, fascinating female lead. JKR has an incredible knack for side characters. The books have good stuff to stay about grief, and depression, and I know it gets memed now, but it was a big deal (for me) when she said Dumbledore was gay. But this is how I think you can get someone who starts out in a reasonable place, and gets more and more out of touch, and harmful and wrong and dangerous - when locked into one way of seeing the world, and no one with the ability to contradict you.

#jk rowling #jkr #anti jkr #sortinghatchats #tangentially #shc #exploded bird primary #lion secondary #bird primary vs lion primary.

[arcane-abomination]

I recommend reading my piece on Eldritch Witchcraft before this blog.

Its hard to find resources on this practice yet quite a few pagans seem to flock to it like a hidden gem. Getting started on this path can be a little difficult for some, as there are some books out there that have been published but they can be somewhat obscure, and let’s be honest, cost a pretty penny. I remember seeing one for $52 online and that’s not including shipping.

In this blog I have compiled some basics of the practice just to get those who fancy this craft started on their journey. For the most part, this path isn’t set in stone, and can be manipulated to the casters will as they see fit. Most of the modern witches that delve into it are chaos practitioners or already practice Eldritch witchcraft. So this information is very basic but will serve as the foundation for one to build and discover their connection with the gods.

What is it?

A branch of Eldritch Witchcraft, It’s the practice of worship generally centered around the creatures created by the author HP Lovecraft. Originally he wanted to go with the term Yog Sothothary, however others would dub the mythos after Cthulhu, and later after the late author himself. As such, It isn’t uncommon to hear the practice referred to as Cthulhuism or Lovecraftian Paganism as well.

Are The God’s Real?

Well, technically yes but it also depends on how you look at things. Most people fall into one of 3 main categories on the subject.

⚜️ Egragores - This is a type thoughtform creation, a being of pure energy given life and sentience by the belief of multiple individuals. Those of Yog Sothothary can sometimes believe that the gods were created in this way, and it’s the belief and worship in them that satiates and feeds them. They are sentient, and have developed over the years into powerful gods.

⚜️ Alien-like Deities - This system is a little different from the first. It generally holds the belief that Lovecraft had a connection through his subconscious to the astral realm. In some retellings he didn’t even know it. When he slept he unconsciously connected with other worlds and dimensions, but didn’t understand them for what they were and so wrote them the way he did.

⚜️ Real Forms Of Historic Gods - This theory states that the beings Lovecraft saw and created were actually the real forms of other well known deity. The forms we see them as are either epithets or avatars. (An example would be Pan being an extent of Shub Niggurath) This makes it easier to work with us since our mortal minds can’t completely comprehend what lies on the other side and can go mad when seeing a god in its true form.

How to work with them

They work very much like other deity would. They command some sort of respect, and offerings. Typically they will tell you what kinds of things they prefer from you, this is not limited to offerings alone but also other correspondence as well. One thing to make note of though is that it is very common for them to greet you with an avatar of some sort. That way they can choose a form that best connects with you. These avatars can look like animals, humans, or other monstrous creatures. The possibilities are limitless. Sometimes they may even choose one that resembles their true form although not entirely because mortal minds can’t fathom it.

The last thing I have to stress is that while Lovecraft was a racist nihilist, those qualities did NOT pass into the deity of his mythos. Racism is a human trait, concocted through human concepts of bigotry. Deity don’t have the same concepts. They do not view race the way we do. To them, a human is a human. Their skin color doesn’t matter. This practice will never be one that works in a racist manner.

Types of Magick

For the most part people tend to gravitate a lot towards ceremonial magick. This is in part due to the fact that most of the stories involved with summoning the gods have a ceremony motif to them. However, if you’re not into this type of Magick you needn’t worry. Calling a deity can be worth more casual Magick. Personally this is the way I do it for the most part. It’s the intention the gods really care about not whether it’s a whole lengthy ceremony or not.

Symbolism

Each deity’s Symbolism can be derived from their respected texts. It’s important to remember that while the bigotry isn’t apart of their actual makeup some of the symbolism in the writing is. It’s not as cut and dry as the story presents though. Which has lead to many processing the information in various ways. For the sake of this blog I will list some of the more favored gods as well as what’s typically associated with them. However, you are free to draw your own conclusions, as much of this practice operates this way.

⚜️ Azathoth ⚜️

Known as the blind idiot god, he is said to be in an internal slumber dreaming up our universe. While the last part is often seen as just apart of the story for lots of practitioners the slumber of the great god isn’t always. Those who work with Azathoth work with dream magick. Believing it’s one of the only ways he can communicate with his followers. The other by using the messenger god to relay information.

⚜️ Yog Sothoth ⚜️

Son of Azathoth, he is typically regarded as the main god of the mythos by most of his followers. It is said he is called the key and the gate, the keeper of dimensions. Existing outside space and time. Because of this he knows all and is often called upon as a god of knowledge, divination, and dimensional travel. In the mythos he’s also associated with bringing back the dead, thus many practitioners view him as a god of necromancy as well.

⚜️ Shub Niggurath ⚜️

The wife of Yog Sothoth she’s a motherly deity that is said to appear deep in forestry areas, almost constantly creating life from opening mouths on her body. She’s seen as a benevolent goddess, one that stands mainly for fertility. In the story she creates milk to feed her followers. Those that drink it become known as Dark Young. From a realistic stand point, the dark young can simply represent her followers, some even view it as a title like priest or priestess. A lesser known association, however, is the belief that the dark young are the dead souls of those that worshipped her in life. They are said to appear on her behalf when she can not be present. Regardless of which one you hold to be true, milk is often used as an offering. She’s called to bless it with protection and fruitfulness, before it’s drank my the witch.

⚜️ Nyarlathotep ⚜️

Known as one of the most malevolent gods of the mythos, he’s said to wander the earth causing havoc. It’s also stated that he’s the messenger of the gods, talking word back to even Azathoth himself. Now, in reality he’s not seen as evil but rather a trickster god. Trickster gods often walk a grey area between light and dark, and can be known to teach in very unconventional ways. This matches what Nyarlathotep is about. Those that work with him can describe him as protective or even stern one minute then care free the next.

⚜️ Cthulhu ⚜️

Arguably the most popular of the mythos, this deity is another dream worker. The story says that the great one slumbers and reaches out to his followers through their dreams. Cthulhu is described by practitioners to be very knowledgeable and protective of those who follow him dutifully. He’s often seen to give gifts to those he feels worthy.

⚜️ Hastur ⚜️

Hastur isn’t always considered part of the pantheon because his creation is a little different from the others. He was only mentioned briefly in one of Lovecraft’s stories. He was later reimagined by Ambrose Bierce, in his short story “Haïta the Shepherd” in which Hastur was described as a the god of shepherds. He was later fleshed out again as a malicious god called the yellow king. Like Nyarlathotep, he isn’t seen as actually evil but rather a chaos or darkness deity. In practice he’s seen as a king, but this doesn’t mean he’s no longer a shepherd. On the contrary. A fair king is seen as both a ruler and a shepherd. He governs and lays down rules, while also protecting and guiding his people. That being said, those who have worked with Hastur often mention that he can be strict, and demanding of offering more profusely then any other deity. But when the castor complies he will be very protective and loyal.

Resources

I will add to this list as more become available, so feel free to link yours in the bottom so I can create a nice Hub. Also please remember that any symbol, regardless of whether it’s words, numbers, or sigils, has power when put down with intention. Even if it’s a symbol taken from a game. It may not have been created with real spirituality in mind but that doesn’t mean someone else can’t use it that way. Everything is just lines, squiggles, and circles until meaning is given to them.

⚜️ R’lyehian Text ⚜️

This is a text said to be given by Cthulhu in the story. While, in the story it’s only vaguely described, there are many people who have created their own versions. These ones I feel the most accurate to me. These are a free download that also comes with a free translator on site for those who just want to try it. The text comes in 2 variations.

• Dark R’lyehain Font Translator & Download

• Minor R’lyehain Font Translator & Download

⚜️ Magick Circles ⚜️

These are in no way meant to be the only circles you use. You can most definitely make your own. These are just some of the more popular ones people have uploaded online that are currently in circulation.

• Generic Magick Circle

• Chaos Star Magick Circle

• Azathoth Magick Circle

• Hastur Magick Circle

• Cthulhu Magick Circle

• Nyarlathotep Magick Circle

⚜️ Bestiary ⚜️

This was originally a tabletop game but it showcases seals & symbols for each deity and creature from the entire mythos along with where their placement is on the hierarchy. It’s a good starting point.

• Lovecraftian Bestiary

⚜️ The Elder Sign ⚜️

The sign is said to protect one against the outer gods. Although it’s not always used for this purpose in the modern craft. Sometimes it’s used as protection, not against the deity but bad energies as a whole. Again it all depends on the witch. Now there are technically 3 variations on this. One created by Lovecraft, another created by August Derleth, and a third depicted as a combination of the two.

• Lovecraft’s Sign

• August Derleth Sign

• Combination Sign

⚜️ Yog Sothothary Sefirot ⚜️

Originally the Sefirot, also called a Sephiroth, was a diagram in the Jewish Kabbala, that showcased the 10 powers, by which God would manifest. Since then their have been multiple variations created by practices, and this practice is no different.

• Lovecraftian Sefirot

⚜️ Links For Further Reading ⚜️

These are links that can help with further reading and understanding of this mythos. Remember though, each one of us works with the mythos in our own unique way. Take from the sources what calls to you and leave what doesn’t.

• Deep Cuts In A Lovecraftian Vein

• Cults Of Lovecraft

• The Influence Of HP Lovecraft On Occultism

• A Practical Guide To Lovecraft’s Lore

• Egragores & The Cthulhu Mythos

• Egragore Wiki

• Excerpts From Liber Yog Sothoth

• The Azatu Gate

• Rite To Call Yogge Sothoth

• Black Book of Azathoth

• Necronomicon Gnosis

• Chthon

• Working Worth The Cthulhu Mythos

#paganism #witchcraft #pagans of tumblr #chaos magician #chaos magick #eldritch magic #witches of tumblr #chaos witch #eldritch witch #chaos witchcraft #eldritch witchcraft #yog sothoth #Yog Sothothery #lovecrafian #lovecraft