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moxpunk · 5 months

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Moxie's Big-Ass Retrospective on Games She Played This Year

There's going to be a lot of games under the break, and I'm going full-hog on spoilers. Honestly, I'm going stream-of-consciousness with these, so there's not going to be a clear point made for some of them. Just how I remember them and how I feel now looking back.

Final Fantasy XIV This is my current MMO of choice, and it's been this massive part of how I spent my time this year. The patches and content continue to be great, even if I breeze through it all in a few days after the patch when plugins/mods are back up. I've definitely noticed a dip in my interest lately. I think it's because we've hit a good stopping-point for the plot and junk, so most of us are just waiting until the pre-patch of the new expansion next year. RP continues to get fucking worse and worse for someone that plays a lalafell, since the community at-large (especially the modding community) is actively hostile towards lalafells and their players. Having to check every single venue to see if my middle-aged potato is going to be treated like a child by the hosts gets exhausting after the umpteenth time. Still love the game and I poke at it on a regular basis.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom One of my favorite games I've played this year, but also one of the most frustrating in hindsight. There was a ton of lost opportunity in multiple aspects in this game, and it's sorta the thing I keep coming back to in my head. I loved the exploration and fucking around with physics and just getting to play around in Hyrule. It's a magical experience that I think transcends the fact that 2/3rds of the map is essentially re-used. The Underground was a missed opportunity to shove lore of ancient civilizations in there, Ganondorf was a missed opportunity to finally depict him as a tragic hero with Hyrule being the villains for once, and no plans for DLC or even a Hero Mode is a massive miss for me wanting to return to the world.

Baldur's Gate 3 Hands-down my favorite game of the year by a massive margin, but like TOTK, an immensely frustrating experience. The game is half-cooked in so many areas, and the bugs are plentiful to the extent that they can't really be ignored. The pathing system continues to be the Larian Special of being jank as all hell, with my characters running in the opposite direction of the path it lays out for them. I played this one on stream, and I cannot remember a single stream where I didn't have at least a handful of frustrations with the combat system. Hell, I had to completely restart my file in the middle of Act 2 because Karlach's romance bugged out. I continue to be very upset and frustrated at how goblins are treated, doubly so since in order to pursue the Good Route with Halsin, you have to attack fucking children. I don't care if they're goblins, they're kids. Also very disappointing we don't get a single short-race origin character, meanwhile half of the cast is some form of elf. At least it's nice letting me be full-on cock-out trans. Despite that, the writing and characterizations in this game are unparalleled. It's immensely refreshing to finally have a RPG where you fucking roleplay, after years of it being dialogue that doesn't matter in the slightest other than "points towards the good/evil ending". I love the Brain Slug Squad immensely. This game is probably going to become part of my "play this every year" list because there's just so many different ways to play through this game.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Been waiting for this game (or a game like it) for fuckin' years, and it's everything I wanted and expected. I know a lot of people went into the game expecting some massive thing that lasted hours and hours, but my memories of JSR/JSRF was a game that I could reasonably beat in an afternoon or two because I just get into the flow and know what I'm doing. Cyberfunk is the purest successor to JSF that I can thing of where it just adds to the fun formula of the past. Incredible game, love seeing the mods coming out for it, hope we get another game in the universe since Team Reptile said they aren't doing DLC.

Pizza Tower Love this game, adore the movement and the music, absolutely fell off at about the halfway mark. I think it's because a lot of stuff was coming out at the time, and I just kinda played those instead. One of these days, I'll beat it and be very satisfied, but for now my gremlin-brain that demands collecting every single collectable and getting at least an A-rank on every stage gets exhausted just thinking about it.

Elden Ring Opened the game up after upgrading to a new PC, marveled that I could run it on Ultra with the game keeping a smooth framerate, killed a few enemies, remembered about the fucking giant ants in this game and how there are zero mods to remove/change them, and then turned the game off and uninstalled. Begging someone to make a mod that gets rid of the fucking ants. Please. I've already gotten every trophy in the game last year, so any incentive I have to return is predicated on that.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty So, I'm going to give my thoughts about the base game and the DLC, since I played both. The base game continues to be this utter fascination to me where my brain adores just existing in the cyberhell future of nonstop advertising (if I have to hear YO YO YO MY CHEWERS SHROOMERS AND FUMERS! one more time I'm going to fucking strangle someone to death) and ultraviolence. The game continues to ride that weird line of "might as well do every side-quest because they're quick enough to get to and there's hardly any compared to Witcher 3" and "oh my god I do not care about these fucking sidequests other than I have gremlin-brain". Doing anything with sniper rifles or heavy machine guns is an exercise in frustration thanks to there being zero silenced sniper rifle until late-game and there being no unique HMGs.The DLC is... fine. It's fun antagonizing Idris Alba, it's not fun that the DLC is based around a stealth build, it's extremely not fun that the changed ending is deeply unsatisfying from a narrative standpoint.

Pseudoregalia An adorable little game that I enjoyed quite a bit for the very short time I got to fool around with it. Love the movement, love the style of the graphics, love the little pieces of story. Game doesn't get enough love, so here's me giving it some more.

Potionomics I fucking adore this game. I think what helped endear me was getting to do all the voices on-stream, but who cares this is my retrospective and I get to be biased. Loved the romances and characters in there. I absolutely headcanon Xid as being trans, Roxanne turns me into a babbling idiot, and I relate to Luna so hard it almost hurts. I enjoy that characters remain your friend if you already picked a partner, and you have to have a conversation about "hey, you were kinda flirty for a while and I feel a little weird about that now" for each of them. Breaking the economy by the third competition was immensely satisfying.

Paradise Killer I slammed through this game over the course of a single sleepless night thanks to Super Depression. Love the character designs and how bold they are, love the lore behind the world, got kinda sick of it taking so long to travel from place to place, gremlin-brain refused to let me part with the game until I collected everything. Hope to see a prequel/sequel of some sort, because Lady Love Dies is such an interesting character and I liked the bugfuck-weird world.

Peglin It's Peggle, you're a goblin, you get funky ball powerups, adore playing this game on my phone in short bursts. Not much more to say, it's my potato-chip game.

Rimworld Friend gifted this to me and I got horribly obsessed for like a week. It's a lot easier to grok than Dwarf Fortress thanks to the UI and information being easier to comprehend. I never know how to do the crazy shit in these games, I usually peak at having a little self-sustaining settlement with like 4 characters that live their little lives until a plague or bandit raid sweep through and kill everyone.

Halo: Master Chief Collection Another series of games I got obsessed with and pounded out before dropping it. Halo 1 is like twice as long as I remember, Halo 2's remastered cutscenes are fucking gorgeous and it continues to be my favorite out of the series, Halo 3 I'm lukewarm on it's whatever, Halo Reach is... eh I don't care, ODST I petered out of thanks to playing it with an ex that does not understand videogames, Halo 4 is a slog. Didn't do any multiplayer.

Helltaker Finally played it, beat it in like 2 hours, thought the puzzles were fun and the art continues to rattle around in my noggin.

A Hat In Time Another game that I finally beat after owning it for like the better part of a decade. Cute little game, I don't have a clue what any of the updates and junk do these days. The big mountain level is a fucking nightmare to navigate and explore and that's why I fell off last time.

Puzzle Agent Played this one on-stream because I'm Minnesotan as all fuck and I enjoy Professor Layton puzzles. It's just as good as I remember, even if it's incredibly short.

Kingsway Love the premise, adore that it takes me back to the Windows XP era of using my parents' computer. I had like one good run that died in the middle of things, and I never really went back. I should do this game again at some point.

Loop Hero Another procedural game where progress is usually bottlenecked by gathering base resources in each run so you have a fighting chance. All my runs sorta ended up the same by a certain point and I wasn't really having much fun anymore.

Lethal Company Game scares the absolute shit out of me, I cannot play this game for extended periods because I get heartburn from fear. Excellent experience with friends.

Super Mario RPG I didn't have a SNES growing up, so I never got a chance to play the original. So far, I've been greatly enjoying the remake! I don't have much to say because I've only played like four hours of it on stream.

Katamari Reroll Just beat this game again on stream last week. Extremely fun, extremely short, Lonely Rolling Star continues to make me get emotional and cry, my memories get mixed-up with We ♥️ Katamari when it comes to the final sequence of levels.

World of Warcraft I made the return, and holy shit have things changed in-game. The UI actually looks like it's part of a cohesive artstyle, catching up with the story and questlines after bouncing in the middle of Shadowlands is honestly kind of exhausting, and the RP community is still splintered and fractured between Retail and Epsilon. Controller-support has been my biggest gripe since XIV's is fucking stellar and I do not have the wrists/hands for putting my abilities on the keyboard anymore, I either have to use my janked-out mouse buttons or a controller using ConsolePort which is... serviceable but nowhere near good. Uh, I don't particularly care for the dragon-stuff in WoW's lore, and I still haven't done a single dungeon since I play Brewmaster and I'm so out of whack with WoW tanking that I just don't bother. I'm usually doing RP on my endless ranks of characters if I'm not playing with my girlfriend. Season of Discovery has been a fun thing to do with my friend and our guild, it's sorta what I wanted out of Classic when they announced it. The "No Changes" thing was stupid because we'll never get back the lack of information and endless time we had back then, so I'm very happy to have World Of Warcraft Chopped And Screwed Edition. As much as I still have massive, major gripes with Blizzard and ABK in general... Azeroth is still home for me. It's been important to me as a person. Wouldn't have realized I was trans or poly without it.

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT My thinks and feelings on all the games I played this year in 2023. I guess to sum up the year in general? It's been a real shit year for me. Went through like three big breakups, my art output's been dogshit in quantity thanks to mental-health issues, and for the first half of the year people just sorta generally treated me poorly which exaserbated a lot of problems. I'm recovering, but I've noticed it's been a lot slower than it has been in the past. Games are a huge hobby of mine, so I'm glad I've gotten to play some bangers this year. Being more active on Tumblr's been good for my mental health, since I finally feel like I've got a community again after not really feeling like I've had one in forever. Love you guys, stay weird. 💖💖💖

Sorry not sorry for this being so long.

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balkanradfem · 1 year

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On agriculture, sustainability of cities, and monocrops.

So if you've lived in the countryside, or even seen a rural village on a map, you know how it's set up. There's a road, the area around the road is peppered with houses, and then behind every house, there's several fields growing grains, beans and potatoes. Most often, there's also a little vegetable garden in the back yard, and sometimes a few chickens, goats, or a sheep. Around the fields, there are forests, and every clearing in the forest is growing something, even if it's just grass that is set to be cut into hay.

It's clear where these people's food comes from, and how big of an area it takes to grow it. It's visible just by monitoring, that for one family it takes a field of wheat, potatoes, smaller area for beans, a vegetable garden, and corn or a similar grain for their animals. It makes sense, these people have inherited the land that can feed them, and they do it. The forests are used for firewood, but also replanted, there are new trees constantly planted, and only old, dangerous and rotten trees are felled.

And then you look at a city, and it doesn't make sense. The area is more densely populated, but there are no fields, no grains, no vegetable gardens, no chickens. So how do they eat?

The answer is – the fields are elsewhere. They're planted far from view. And the food is brought to the people, instead of grown where they live. Isn't that a bit inconvenient? The people in the city don't think so. They make a lot of money, and they can have food delivered to them. But what does it take to produce the food for a densely populated city? That's where we meet agriculture.

In order to produce massive amounts of food, enough to feed an entire city, you'll need a big amount of agricultural land. And, you'll need that food produced cheaply enough, so that when people buy it, there is some profit for you as well. So, you'll want to own a big area of land that is yours to do with as you please, and you'll need big machines, so you don't have to pay for human labour, and all of the profits go to you.

Now, the big machines that harvest food do not work like human hands do – they do not differentiate one plant from another. If you want a machine to harvest your field, your field has to grow 1 single type of crop. Otherwise, your harvest will be a mess, and it will take additional, expensive work to separate usable crops from waste. So, you create massive fields with only one type of plant growing on them.

I remember looking at big fields of wheat or corn, and thinking, neat! That's so much food growing! And it looks so clean and well grown! I don't have those thoughts anymore, sadly. The reality of a whole field growing only one type of plant, is now upsetting to me.

The thing with natural, wild fields is, they feed the wildlife. They have flowers that open even in the winter and early spring, and then continue to produce different types of flowers throughout the entire season, making sure bees have food all year long. They house different insects and good bacteria, they lure in birds, worms, ants, ladybugs, grasshoppers, butterflies, bumblebees, and all kinds of beneficial, lovely bugs. If there's a presence of water, you'll find frogs, dragonflies, and much more birds, who are there to feed on the insects and pick off the caterpillars. You might find a hedgehog, a snake, a turtle in there. All are coming because there are sources of life for them in that field, plants they can eat, or plants that bugs can eat, and bugs are then delicious resource to the animals. Bugs we consider pests, are also a great food resource for the birds and the animals, and their population is monitored and controlled by all of the other animals. Plants rarely get destroyed by pests, or they evolve to defend themselves, or to attract a predator who fends off of the pests.

Now, a field of let's say, only corn, doesn't do that. The corn is pollinated by wind, and the flowers of corn do not attract the bees. They do not serve as a home to many insects, and they do not make a good resource for the wildlife – until of course, they make the corn itself, which is then attractive to the birds. But they cannot sustain life for the entire year. There's only a short window when these crops can serve as source of food.

The area where corn will be planted, has to be tilled early in the winter or spring, making sure every life-giving plant in that area, is dead. Then, corn is planted, and then often weeded or sprayed with herbicide, if any other plant manages to grow inbetween. And they will grow, because no matter how hard you try to kill every weed, seeds are carried by the wind, by the birds, buried deep into the ground, some are capable of growing back from just one single piece of root. You cannot exterminate them, except, by herbicide. And that is what happens in monocultures – in order to fight nature to the point where you establish a monoculture, you have to distribute poison for plants.

After the monocrop is harvested, the field is left barren and void of life. There are no flowers, no food for bees, no hiding places for the insects to hibernate in. Some may hibernate deep in the soil, if they have not yet gotten poisoned, but most will not even bother, as there are no food sources in the area.

Have you noticed how wild fields do not get their soil depleted and poor at any time? Year after year, the wild plants are growing anew, never losing nutrients, never lacking food. And there's a reason for this – the wild plants are left to wither, dry, lay flat on the ground, and then decompose. The bugs, worms, bacteria and insects in the ground use them as a food source, and after going thru their digestive systems, it decomposes and becomes soil again. This way, all of the nutrients, minerals and food they took from the soil while growing, comes back around, creating fertile ground for a new season.

But monocrops do not do that. Once harvested, the soil remains depleted, the waste products of grains are usually extremely low in nutrients, there are no bugs to aid composting, the space remains empty of minerals and nutrition the plants have absorbed. So what do you do to keep growing? You have to buy the nutrients and physically distribute them all over the field, in order for the next year's crop to grow again. This almost ensures that you will have to do this again and again, and that your crops will only be able to feed on whatever you put there, and will only have the minerals you yourself have put in the soil. The soil itself becomes void of life, because it's those worms and insects and bacteria that are keeping the soil alive and healthy, they're creating an ecosystem where plants love to grow, where a healthy balance of nutrients and air and water and compost and roots is kept. Your field cannot do it. You have given the soil nothing to live off of. There is only a single crop, and it doesn't support any life in the soil. It doesn't feed the beneficial bacteria, bugs, or animals.

But you know what it does feed? The pests. There will always be some types of bugs evolved specifically to feed on your crop, and once you plant your crop over several kilometers, you have given them a perfect food source, and they will not restrain from multiplying rapidly, enjoying what you provided. Your monocrop will start getting eaten at a rapid rate, unless, you spray it with pesticide. So you do, you have to, there are no birds, predatory bugs, animals, or any other kind of natural pest control that would do the work for you or stop the pests from multiplying uncontrollably. You have to poison your monocrop in order to protect it from getting eaten away.

Wild plants are usually good at fending off diseases, because they will cross-pollinate, and some will contain disease-resistant genes that ensure that the next generation of plants will grow stronger. Your monocrop, is carefully planted so only ever one type of plant is growing, same type of seed, protected from cross-pollination, same dna. So when a disease hits, there will be no resistance. Your plants will all get infected. If it's a bit too hot, or too cold, or a disaster hits, or a new type of bacteria attacks, your plants have no way of defending themselves, or evolving into a stronger, more disease-resistant versions of themselves. You'll have to develop a different type of plant on your own, and rely on chemicals again, to stop the disease, to save your plants. This is actually the reason why bananas as we know them, are soon to be extinct, and a new variety is being developed to replace them – they've all grown sick, and there's nothing that can be done to save them, except developing a different variety that will hopefully, be resistant to that disease (but not to a new one, repeating the cycle again and again.)

So, once you've secured your giant fields of monocrops, convenient for your big machines to work and harvest, you've started to notice that you have to spray the chemicals on your fields to fertilize the soil, then to kill of weeds, then to kill off pests, then to fend off disease, and you're in fact, spending a lot of money on all these chemicals that you are now completely dependent upon. And what happens next is, these chemicals start getting more and more expensive. Maybe the seeds prices are getting higher too. And now, you're in a situation where you don't have many options. You cannot grow the same volume of food without monocrops, and you can't sustain your practice with ever-higher prices it takes to grow in this unnatural, diversity-eliminating way. In the older times, people learned to rotate their crops, allowing the land to grow some wild plants and recover from the intense use of agriculture, but now you can't afford to own land that you are not actively using for profit.

This is why agriculture is getting less and less productive, and why we keep needing new agricultural land to grow on, the soil is getting depleted, and land unusable. This also caused by the wind erosion and sun erosion. While the crops are not growing, the land is barren, tilled, and left exposed to the sun, which dries the top layer, since there are no plants covering it, and then the wind dries it even more, dissipates it into tiny particles, and turns it into dust. Without constant and consistent rain – which is rarely available, the soil gets turned into dust. This is a hard lesson learned by the 'dust bowl' example, where the agriculture combined with drought created soil erosion so intense, the people couldn't see in the times of storms due to the dust, and would often get lost in their own fields.

Soil erosion and wind erosion can be mitigated by growing 'cover crops', meaning plants are allowed to grow, or are specifically sown in the times of year where the main crop isn't growing, so the sun and the wind could not deplete the top layer of soil. The plants also help keep the soil alive with insects, worms and bacteria, and keep moisture in, more effectively than the barren land could. Another solution for gardeners is mulching, covering the soil with a layer of organic matter, it can be leaves, hay, straw, pine needles, wood bark, wood chips, anything that will decompose and create food for insects, generate a protective layers from the sun and the wind, and keeps moisture inside. In combination with this, it's important to not till the soil. Tilling exposes several layers of soil to the elements and disrupts or completely destroys the established ecosystem inside. No-till and no-dig methods are protective of the health in soil, specifically for smaller areas.

For large areas, what helps the soil stay safe and properly structured is allowing wild plants to grow, which have deep, resilient roots. You know when you grow a plant in a pot, and you pull it out, it holds the entirety of the soil together, just with the roots? That is what the wild plants are doing as well. The deeper their roots, the better structure and stability of the soil will be. Deep roots can draw the water from deep inside of the soil and keep the moisture level even in a drought. Big trees are also a factor in keeping the soil structured and safe, for example, if you keep trees on the riverbank, their roots will protect the soil from being carried away and depleted by the water. If you were to remove the trees, the water would erode the soil of the riverbanks. They also protect the soil from getting blown away by the wind.

There is a problem of decreased availability of water. We have now extracted so much water from our planet, it's getting harder to find water sources for our crops. And there are thousands of kilometers of these monocrops, making sure that no wild life species can live in that huge area that was once wilderness. This resulted in many species being threatened into extinction, if not already extinct. Bees cannot live on agricultural land, because there is no food. And all of these areas are not being used to feed the people in the cities, no. The majority of agricultural land isn't even used to grow the crops for human consumption. The plant products that the people eat is about 20-30% of all of the crops we grow. The rest is growing crops that feed the animals meant for human consumption. And these fields need to grow crops sometimes for years, until the animal is heavy enough to be used as a source of food. Reducing animal products could easily reduce the amount of monocrops we need to sustain our food sources, by big percentages. But, we're not trying to do that. Instead, the demand is steadily rising up.

Thinking of this makes me wonder if big cities are ultimately, unsustainable. Growing food to be harvested by human hands enables incredible diversity, fertilizing with compost, manure, bone powder, fish meal, and rich organic fertilizers that can be distributed over smaller areas easily. No till gardens can preserve all of the healthy bacteria, insects, worms and ecosystems in the soil. Using mulch and cover crops to protect the land from sun and wind erosion, and to keep the moisture in, can stop soil depletion in those areas, and feed and protect the wildlife and life in the soil. Animals can be used as pest control and as a method of fertilizing – if you leave chickens, pigs, or cows to graze an area and leave manure behind, they will bring fertility to the land. But, you would not be able to grow the amount of food that would feed an entire city, not without it requiring a vast amount of human labour, which would make the food expensive, and unavailable to the poorest citizens.

But, we can't get rid of cities, so we have to keep developing healthier and more soil-protecting ways to grow big amounts of food, in order to create sustainable, resilient and secure sources of food for people living in all kinds of areas. Encouraging people to change their habits and eat less beef, lamb, poultry and animal products would help significantly, since the amount of food that needs to be grown would reduce by a lot. Encouraging people to grow their own food, in rich and diversity-preserving ways, also helps cut carbon emissions by a lot, since this food no longer needs to be shipped and transported. Having people understand how their food is grown, what it takes to produce, and what is lost in the process, might inspire them to change their habits, and put more effort into reducing waste. Because even after destroying all that wildlife and diverse ecosystems – 20 to 30% of that food is simply thrown away. Food that people grow themselves is most often, never thrown away, because then it is a prized produce, something they worked hard on, something they treasure. In case of a spoiled produce, it gets composted right back into the soil, making the waste non-existent.

Home grown food is often at least somewhat affected by bugs and pests, and that is normal. It's a sign of the food being healthy, unpoisoned, and obviously a great food source, since the bugs are all for it. I've noticed home-gardeners, who understand how pests work, feel skeptical about the store-bought food, just because it being so pest free is in fact, unnatural. 'What did you do to it, so the bugs didn't want it?' opens up the answers of how far one needs to go to make the produce undesirable and uninteresting to bugs. You need to go as far as convince them that this is not a good food source anymore. And the bugs acknowledge it, and go find food elsewhere. And we often have no choice, but to buy that exact same food.

Food grown for selling in stores has proved to be less nutritious, grown merely for the visual appeal, storage and transportation, rather than taste. This is why, after eating store-bought produce, homegrown will taste infinitely better, sweeter, with more intense flavour and noticeably better nutrition.

What we'll need to do is spread awareness, learn about the cost of our food, and change our habits to make it less damaging on the planet. We can also try growing food. Make barren areas into wildlife again. Build ponds to attract birds, animals and bugs. We can try making diverse no-till gardens where all of the different varieties grow on top of each other, together with flowers and weeds and mushrooms. Make it a place for birds, ladybugs and bees to gather. Make it friendly to little mice, frogs, lizards and butterflies. We might just help save some of the dying species on this planet.

#monocrops #agriculture #unsustainable food growing #gardening #ecology #climate crisis #climate change #plant agriculture #animal agriculture

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hallucinateonpaperspines · 3 months

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I'm kinda debating putting a RDR2 crossover out there, but I don't know if this is something that only works in the recesses of my brain or actually workable... it would defiantly be crack like no tomorrow and would not include the bots. Maybe? still figuring out details.

ehm, an actual fic would be a long ways off and I've been working on this sparingly on the side (OUAT and the next OT&T is actively being worked on, exam madness is over so I want to release one of them before Monday!) but I'm just kinda interested so see if there would be any interest in some gunslinger hijinks.

Soooooo

Ashlyn, Jack, Miko, and Raf are all transported to RDR2 via mission gone wrong/weird cave drawings/MC luck

Ashlyn figures out what happened pretty quickly (she should be getting a universe hoping punch card at this rate)

She does not realize that she isn't alone.

Cue one Ms Moore galavanting around the RDR map while the Kids stick around the Vander Linde gang and are Very Confused.

The Kids experience includes;

Jack being renamed "Big Jack" since Jack Marston complains that it's HIS name. Jack is just having a moment. He's pretty sure he was found and rescued by a cult.

Jack joins Charles on a hunting mission, only to find the previously missing Miko impersonating a bush and doing a surprisingly decent job seeking up on the deer. Miko goes on to join the gang with Jack. She keeps trying to sneak into robberies. Hosea always catches her, and she emerges from very comical locations.

Raf initially panics. Then finds himself at a poker table at a train station. Luck is is only a game of statistics and Raf knows numbers. Becomes the Poker King, the nervous face IS his poker face. Overtime he learns everbodies business. Nice side effect of being the only sober gambler in the state. And the youngest. Via this, he turns up at the camp one day. Swanson's like *surprised pikachu face* He hears rumors about a strange cryptid running around and is like "Yeah that checks out. It's Ashlyn."

Meanwhile Ashlyn Moore is;

Roaming the wilderness treasure hunting and gives Downes's house a gold bar. Just pops up in every other town doing side quests. Stories start spreading about the wild thing looking for the Hooch man.

Eventially captured by O'Driscolls. Probably for insulting their vests, refusing to pay a bridge toll, or making some very interesting insults about not being able to rob a potato. That camp doesn’t exist anymore.

At some point, Micah and Ashlyn meet- or fight as a first meeting. She bites. He was not expecting this. Says she must have rabies, this incurred further wrath. Ashlyn is brought to the camp by Micah, saying she’s an O'Driscoll (kids are absent for the time). The girl proceeds to call out every manipulative sentence and asks for a step-by-step torture breakdown. Poor Kieran is getting flashbacks whenever she brings up gelding. Begins to creep everyone out when she keeps moving in the night. Still tied to a tree, but it’s a different tree. Mentions scary camping statistics (how many bugs crawl into the ear). The hotel gains a lot of business suddenly.

Ashlyn finally meets Dutch and the look in her eyes makes the kids panic. Spiderman meme is done when Ashlyn realizes others also came with her.

Ashlyn plays poker. She does not know how to play poker, but she keeps winning. Everyone is convinced she’s either cheating or a poker master while Raf is calculating how some of these moves are possible. Arthur finds this hilarious when she asks what the discs mean. Micah’s brain stops working.

Pulls The Batman references via el rata, Javier loses his mind about the incorrect Spanish. So does Raf. Bonding ensures via trying to keep Ashlyn’s mouth shut.

At a certain point, Ashlyn would make eye contact with Dutch while dropping a gold bar in the donation box. Bonus points if he's in the middle of a moneh rant.

"Who'd ya rob for that, missy?"

"A police station."

She's not telling him its the burned out one down the road.

#ao3 author #ao3 #tfp #rdr2 #fic ideas #go out into the void #maybe a fic will come back to me.

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black-rose-writings · 1 year

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Watching Shadow and Bone Season 2: Episode 1 - I am losing braincells fast

Okay, I finally have time. Let's do this.

Firstly, sorry if I miss some visual details, I am watching it on a very legal site that unfortunately has something of a potato quality.

S1 Intros looked better.

Alina is looking around in her pretty little dream sequence like "My Saints, life is so emo right now."

Sasha, my beloved.

Wasting sickness my ass.

And there is Mal, assuring her that Sasha is dead.

Where did Alina get her new fancy dress, if they've been on a ship since the end of S1? And her hair grew a lot for it being just two weeks... sorry, nit picks, but like... her hair was not that long and it doesn't grow all that much in two weeks.

Oh, look, Ketterdam. Surely, Alina will not face any danger of being kidnapped and sold into slavery, despite there being a million kruge bounty on her head last season.

So, what exactly do they think they'll find in Kerch. At least when they were running in the books, they just wanted to get to the frontier to disappear there. But like, you two don't have shit to your name... ah, I'm barely like 2 minutes in and I'm already rambling.

Oh, look, Kaz arranged them fake passports... somehow. While they were all on a ship.

*stop thinking about the details, stop thinking about the details, or you'll drive yourself crazy*

So, when exactly did she decide to go after the Sea Whip? Why does she believe it's real? Fuck, I'm doing it again.

Ah, yes, let's talk about our plans and identities openly in public where anyone can hear us.

Also, love how this is 100% the opposite of book Mal. Kinda unironially. Book!Mal can go die in a ditch.

So, we're sticking to the stange season 1 plot of Alina being some kind of a clairvoyant, huh?

Or, wait, are they in Novyi Zem? I guess they are. Okay, nevermind my first few points, I am an idiot.

I know season 1 did weird time jumps, too, but this is going to be very jarring.

Oh, look, Inej still not scared one bit of Haleen.

And... that's what happens when you leave town for months on a whim. You dunce.

Oh, look, Kaz's backstory.

Not sure how I feel about this weird twist, but sure, let's see where this goes.

I'm sorry, who did they even kill? WTF is that?

I mean, I know Ketterdam kinda sucks, but that went down way too quickly.

And Kaz trying not to lose his shit because he's surrounded by people. Well, at least that's book accurate.

Love how the guy next to Jesper is staring at him like "bro, who you talking to".

Okay, what the fuck is happening.

Oh, look at that, we are not completely ignoring that Kaz and co. got hired to kidnap and sell Alina. Well, her side of the story will, but hey, at least it's not completely glossed over like the fucking maps.

Okay, excuse, what the actual fuck is this? What in the name of hell is Nikolai doing. I am confused and not in a good way. I feel like we're missing... a lot of context. Like, a lot.

Okay, so let me get this straight... the way that they get around the "Crows planned to sell Alina into slavery" plot line is... by retconning it so that Nikolai was behind it all along. For some Saints-forsaken reason. Well, Alina is still dumb as bricks, but okay I guess.

Fjerda made ship-art. Of Darklina. For their bounty poster. (Or is this part of the whole retarded "Aleksander is working with the Fjerdans for some reason" plotline.

My question is where they got the visual reference from since everyone except for Crows and Alina-and-co. got murdered.

Kaz, mentally: Jesper, you idiot.

Wow, look at that. Room like for a queen. Wonder where they got the money from. Definitelly an upgrade from the bed-bug infested group room of the book.

At least take your fucking shoes off you barbarian!

Mal is down for travelling the world. Wow, they really pulled a full 180 on this bitch, huh?

Ew. Just ew.

Thank the Saints for cockblocking fishermen. I will vomit if they go any further.

Kaz, screaming internally: Shut the fuck up Jesper.

Oh, look, we still doing the whole "paying with jewelry got her tracked down" thing. Just, slightly less retarded.

Hold up, are we saying Jesper and Kaz are having the conversation now. Like, come on, they've worked with each other for a long time, there's no way this didn't come up before.

That is way more than 20 seconds, just saying.

Oh, look, another Alina dream sequence.

Okay, so is that like a Tether thing or is she just having prophetic dreams? If it's the Tether, how does Sasha already know what Mal is, they spoke like 2 times. If it's prophetic dreams... why though?

Language barrier? What language barrier?

Ravkan Grisha? Of all places? Is she talking about the pogroms that happened after the Fold expanded? Cause if I understand the timeline correctly, there's no way the news have spread that far, yet.

I mean, even in Novyi Zem, Grisha are not safe, in the books. There might not be society-wide prejudice, but there's also not any protection from, you know, slavers and shit (or at least not enough). Ravkan Grisha might be soldiers, but that's not exactly an uncommon profession in this world.

(calm down. You can rant later)

Please tell me this interaction isn't the reason Alina is going to go "All lives matter" on her Grisha status.

Also, how come the maps are marked in Ravkan? Again, language barrier is not a thing here.

Alina being the most suspicious thief ever.

Also, ehm, what the actual fuck is that map doing?

Wow, look at Alina, definitelly not attracting any attention with her summoning.

Why are these two talking about it... in the library of all places?

Also, I'm pretty sure public libraries with all this quantity of information available to just anyone were not a thing until the early 20th century, which the Grishaverse is most certainly not.

Dear god, this is so dumb.

Who drew that shit that it's so accurate that the people actually recognize her by it? At least when she had the physical collar in the books it made sense why everyone recognized her.

Mal being no less suspicious about asking about this shit.

For some reason, there's First Army here. Is that Bohdan from season 1? Why the fuck is he of all people in Novyi Zem?

I know the plot needs to move forwar, but this is a bit too many coincidences for my taste.

Mal's doing parkour, because we've gone 20 minutes without an action scene and if nothing happens for too long, people will start to question our dumb-fuck narrative choices.

Also, the question stands. Where the fuck did Mal and Alina get their money.

Not that I am a big fan of the King's army, but like... just shoot him. He's gonna hang for desertion, anyway. You had a gun to his head, already.

And look, how much of a badass Mal is, taking down a handful of soldiers of equal training without much trouble.

Really... you're trying to stay hidden and you've just found out there's a massive bounty on your head and you... summon in a square full of people.

I don't know why I'm bothering to use my brain anymore.

Random Zemeni people decide to protect her because... she's a Saint? I guess?

Zemeni people believe in the Saints, I guess.

Okay... let's see if they can at least write a convincing sibling dynamic when they don't intend for those two characters to fuck.

Tamar sounding far too 21st century and that's not how people talk, in general. (I say as if I talk to people).

As much as I love the bounty posters, I do have to say, I don't get how they have such a good drawing on them so quickly.

Why is Inej stealing random people's knives?

They killed Haleen. Off screen.

I mean, I guess that's one way to avoid Inej's absolutely amazing, very important and already ruined by last season revenge moment. However...

I am not saying this just because they changed the story and I know they needed to include them again, since they did last season, but like... I don't trust these writers to do these characters an ounce of justice. Or make up an alternative story that makes even a little bit of sense.

And there's still 20 minutes of an episode left. FML.

Okay, hot take, I liked book!Pekka more. This one is far too much of a cartoon villain and not in a fun way. Kaz was the one for whom it was personal. Pekka was just doing business. So, either Pekka is being pupeteered by someone else (which would make the level of too complex and dumb to work conspiracy way too high. Like, it already is, but this would be over 9000) or they really made Pekka into a cartoon villain who would hunt down one guy for a single (fake) million kruge job.

And just like that, everyone in the room went deaf.

Oh, look, Wylan. He's baby.

Inej somehow got caught sneaking in the shadows. Book!Inej would be disappointed.

Ah, yes, asking a random stranger to help break your boyfriend out of the most secure and shitty prison in all of Kerch, like, right now, something which took a lot of planning and a lot of work in the book.

(stop comparing it to the book, we know it was better, you'll drive yourself crazy)

I think telling them you're innocent when you're being dragged into the cell is... a little pointless?

I am still asking the money question.

And that's Sturmhond's ship, isn't it?

Ew 2.

Dear god, they're still using the fucking pins. They didn't have to. They could have completely avoided it. They didn't have to do it. I feel personally attacked by the inclusion of the pins.

How does Alina not realize the boat people are after her, too, right now, is beyond me. Like... my dude, my lass, nobody is going to put their life on the line for one shitty pin.

Are we getting Sasha. Please tell me we're getting Sasha being the best leader and the best character, please, I need a little bit of common sense before I lose my shit.

So... the first army is doing the sham trials of Grisha. And Aleksander is going to save them. And he's still the villain and not the monarchy. Okay. Sure.

Is that Genya?

Tell me, if this is what happens, how in the hell is she going to join Alina, who is supporting the King.

Please, tell me the show is gonna go for a "Fuck the monarchy" twist.

The First army is laughing as they're preparing to murder a bunch of innocent people. I think it's only fair that I cheer on once Sasha and the Nichevoya tear them to bits.

It's Sasha to the rescue!!!!! Hell yeah.

Now that is a hero's entrance. Moi Soverennyi!

Ah, yes, time to catch up.

Oh, look, Alina being a dumb bitch finally but her in the ass.

Well, not really, we know it's Nikolai, but Saints I wish it did.

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix #shadown and bone season 2 #review #grishaverse #long post #took me 2 and a half hours to get through a 1 hour episode because it's so bad

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bakersstreetirregulars · 11 months

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Giant Veggie Contest - Part 1 - Official Patch Notes

Greetings from the Cookie Run: OvenBreak team.

Champions League has returned, together with the newest Cookie addition—Potato Cookie (and pigtatoes)!

Here are the details of this latest update.

1. POTATO COOKIE & SEEDY

- Potato Cookie: Rides a pigtato and harvests Potato Jellies!

- Seedy: Creates Potato Sprout Parties.

- Pigtatoes: They deserve a hug.

2. NEW TREASURE

- Bountiful Scarecrow: Keeps the flocks of sparrows away from the fields.

3. NEW CONTENT & FEATURES

GIANT VEGGIE CONTEST EVENT

- The Cookies have grown huge crops by using their very own secret farming techniques!

- Choose farming techniques in each event stage, and gain special effects as you run.

- Some techniques have downsides, so think through your choices wisely!

- Make the most of the techniques you are given, and aim for as high scores as possible to get all the rewards!

SPECIAL COSTUME DRAW

- Spinach Cookie's Veggie Lovers President (SUPER EPIC)

- Dr. Bones Cookie's Healthiest Show Host (EPIC)

- Banner duration: May 30, 10:00 AM - July 13, 08:00 AM (GMT+9)

SPECIAL SHAPE DRAW

- Shining Actor Set (EPIC)

- Banner duration: May 30, 10:00 AM - July 27, 08:00 AM (GMT+9)

WINNER'S PICK!

- See what Cookie, Pet, and Treasure Combis are used by the ranking leaders of Trophy Race: Land's End, Champions League, and Breakout via the Winner's Pick! badge.

- You can see what Combis are used in the Cookies & Pets Shop, My Cookies, and Cookie Details menus.

- Choose to view only Cookies with the Winner's Pick! badge.

- The gold frame for Cookies with max Level and Affection has been removed.

TROPHY RACE: LAND'S END

1. Name Changes

- Trophy Race: Champions League has been renamed to Trophy Race: Land's End. (This reverts a previous change that removed Land’s End in approximately October 2021. Land’s End was originally introduced in September 2020.)

- Champions Shop has been renamed into Land's End Shop.

2. Shop Changes

- Cookie Costumes previously sold in the shop have been replaced by Costume Bundle Tickets.

- Please look forward to the new special rewards waiting in the next season!

3. Map Changes

- The Ancient Forest Altar map has rotated out and is replaced by the Spooky Scary School map.

- In order to calculate the optimal Combis for the rotated map, Dr. Wasabi's Combi Generator will be temporarily disabled. (Estimated to return June 2)

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

1. NEW SEASON

- Champions League is back!

- Champions League is a seasonal mode that opens Thursday 4:00 PM (GMT+9) the first and third weeks of a season, where you run in 3 arenas and compete against other runners.

- In Hydrangea Season 1, the first season, the following applies.

- Season 1 begins with the update.

- The Congratulate section features the Top 3 runners from the final season of the previous Champions League.

- The Congratulation Rewards for Season 1 default to the basic rewards. (Starting with Season 2, the Top 3 runners choose the rewards.)

2. GRAND CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

- Grand Champions League Invitations are now available as rewards from Champions League.

- Previously only runners who finished Top 10% of Champions League were able to obtain invitations, but starting this season all runners within the Top 20% are eligible for invitations.

- Participating in the Grand Champions League without an invitation instead requires 10,000 Crystals.

- The Grand Champions League schedule will be released at a later date.

BALANCE ADJUSTMENTS & BUG FIXES

1. Dr. Bones Cookie

- Increased points for Red Recovery Jellies (+700,000 Red Recovery Jelly Points, Level 5)

- Added Combi bonus for Bone-afide Multivitamin Jelly (+146,000 points for Pill Jellies)

2. Spinach Cookie

- The destruction points gained during Spinach Giant Mode are now shown added to regular destruction points gained

- Fixed an issue where the Blast Mode effect of Chili Jellies was not affected by Blast Mode speed increase buffs as intended

- Fixed an issue where the Magic Candy effect lasted shorter than intended during the effects of Spinach Jellies and Chili Jellies

- Increased destruction points during Spinach Giant Mode (+900,000 Spinach Destruction Points, Level 15)

- Increased Chili Blast Points (+800,000 Chili Blast Points, Level 15)

- Increased points for Vitamin Jellies (Vitamin Jelly Score - 360,000 Points, Level 15)

- Increased points for all Jellies while Garlic Shield is active (+45,000 points for all Jellies while Garlic Shield is active, Level 15)

- Increased points for Mini Vegetable Jellies (Mini Vegetable Jelly Score - 250,000 Points, Level 5)

- Added Combi bonus for Flowering Can (+292,000 points for Flower Crystal Jellies)

3. Carrot Cookie

- Improved method of making Carrot Jellies appear

4. Beet Cookie

- Screen zoom levels are now fixed during the skill

- Fixed an issue where the targets would appear too close to the Cookie

5. Centipede Cookie

- Fixed an issue where if Centipede King collected Jellies before they regularly should have been obtainable, no points would be given as a result.

6. Cream Unicorn Cookie

- Fixed an issue where if clouds collected Jellies before they regularly should have been obtainable, no points would be given as a result.

7. Roguefort Cookie

- Fixed an issue where certain explosive effects would incorrectly destroy searchlights during the skill

PETS

1. Caterpea

- Increased points for Pea Jellies (Pea Jelly Score - 400,000 Points, Level 15)

2. Paper Boat Sailor, Bunsy

- Fixed an issue where the cooldown would increase with each skill activation

TREASURES

1. Flowering Can

- Slightly reduced cooldown (14.6 seconds)

- Increased points for Flower Crystal Jellies (Flower Crystal Jelly Score - 2,007,500 Points, Level 12)

- Slightly reduced Combi bonus points (+292,000 points for Flower Crystal Jellies)

2. E-Z Camera

- Photos taken will now always appear at the same height on the screen

- Photos will now always be the same size (Affects Jelly Collection/Obstacle Destruction Hitbox)

3. Bear Jelly Boomerang

- Fixed an issue where the Combi bonus would apply to the relay as well (It apparently shouldn’t…?)

COMBIS

1. Dr. Bones Cookie & Pit-A-Pat Monitor

- Increased points for Recovery Jellies (+220,000 points for Recovery Jellies)

2. Spinach Cookie & Caterpea

- Increased points for Vegetable Jellies (+7,000,000 points for Vegetable Jellies)

COOKIE TRIALS

1. Dr. Bones Cookie's Trial

- Score requirements for certain ranks have been adjusted.

2. Spinach Cookie's Trial

- Certain patterns have been slightly tweaked.

- Added 2 small Potions to the map.

- Score requirements for certain ranks have been adjusted.

3. Trial List

- The runner in 1st place on a New Cookie Cup's Hard Mode leaderboard will now be displayed.

- For New Cookie Cups without Hard Modes, the runner in 1st place of the Normal Mode will instead be displayed.

NICKNAME CHANGES

- Changing your in-game nickname is now free, down from costing 990 Crystals.

- When you change nickname, you must wait 90 days before you can change it again.

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salt-volk · 2 years

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What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you high ID user?

I'll have you know I pledged over $100 in the Dappervolk Kickstarter, and I've been involved in numerous development streams, and I was involved in Beta. I am trained in reporting bugs and I'm the top forum poster in suggestions. You are nothing to me but just another hater. I will report you with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this website, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over Dappervolk Confessions? Think again, crybaby. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of custom owners across the front page and your ID is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, turnip sniffer. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your account. You're fucking banned, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can block you for over seven hundred reasons, and that's just because you overpriced your trades market items. Not only am I extensively trained in replying to the DV Discord, but I have access to Quis's💖 (not Quisling) personal stream Discord and I will use my Discord Potato status to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the world map, you staff harasser. If only you could have known what buli-ying your little "clever" ask was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking submission. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you f2p player. I will write hearsay confessions about you and you will drown in it. You're fucking done, noob.

#shitpost #you guys are killing me loll #mod yoshi #anonymous #blog related

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tomyo · 9 days

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Harvest Moon: A New Beginning (its trans)

So I've finally hit a point where I feel like I can breathe again which means its time to get back into my backlog made majorly of Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games. Admittedly the moment I get into the DS era and beyond, I get overwhelmed by all the mechanics but I spent....a dumb amount of money on these games and I have to push myself to try. Between Trio of Towns and A New Beginning, I chose ANB for two reasons; 1.It might be simpler to jump into 2.You can back door hack yourself into being gay....kinda.

You see the thing is you still can only date hetrosexually BUT you can just change your character to basically look completely like a girl. Trans rights??? Except you'll get misgendered all the time...unless this is a transmasc story instead for the fuckers like me that like to be he/him'd while in full femme mode. Either way, time to romance Yuri!

So admittedly this is a little bit mixed of a guide slash person road map, I am using a Fogu guide but that doesn't necessarily make it easy. So, I'm only on spring 14 but here's what to know thus far:

The game is as handholdy as ACNL/NH and will slowly dole out mechanics over thankfully in game days. Only worry about mechanics as they come.

You will spend per usual a good part of the start will be foraging. Sell the bugs but save flowers/herbs/mushrooms. You will need moon drops for the start of the town restoration. Also save Honey Bees for the second part of it too. Blue flowers are for Emma to befriend her. Hold onto all logs and stones for when Iroha comes.

Talk to all villagers to increase friendship, show them an animal as well but be careful of preferences. Most villager friendship is required to progress to more stores/upgrades.

When you unlock crops, only buy two things of grass. You are given all you need for most of your farm already. Plant and water the grass in the barn area so you'll have fodder in time for the free cow you get a few days later.

Work on shipping tons of potatoes in spring, this will be a headstart for Town Restoration #4 where you need to ship 30 of them.

Events Process: You arrive>>You unlock crops>>Neil arrives and gives you a cow>>Iroha arrives and gives you an Axe and Hammer>> Rebecca arrives and needs house help which unlocks blueprints>> Town Restoration #1>> Town Restoration #2>> Town Restoration #3 start>> Tailor Shop Blue print should unlock if you befriended Emma enough.

Yuri also seems extremely easy to woo honestly, her special like is one of the early recipes which is also important to eat regularly. In general I just love her and its a crime she can't be romanced same sexly but its okay because again, we are transing ourselves which she and Allen will help with. Wow! What a little gay gender affirming circle that is lmao.

The goal is to get Yuri in my town by early to mid fall, the biggest road block is during restoration 2 you need to ship 10 honey which will take 6 days to make so the more hives the better from the start. Clearing out the farm during summer is imperative. Hives are made out of small lumber and honey combs which is why collecting as much as possible is important (and collecting bees for them too!).

After Yuri is unlocked, the only goals are to raise a lot of sheep for wool. hatch 10 chicks, and get one yak when the chance is given. Side goals include birthing three Cows, sheep, and Alpaca during my second year. Most of Restoration 3 and beyond involves mining and wool so I expect to spend winter doing a lot of digging while also being aware that I'll probably not complete the storyline until at least late into year 2. There's more focus on festivals in the final two restorations as well as a lot of odd gems.

Post main plot is for clothing, house decoration, and child rearing. Emma, Neil, Olivia, Sanjay, and the travel location people are important towards gift exchanges. Outfits will just unlock as I go thanks to Yuri. I might also do a split save before marrying Yuri simply because Witch Princess is always kinda cool but is so late game that having to rebuild everything to marry her might honestly kill me.

It seems partially ridiculous to be so early in the game and to be writing so much already but its one of those series where you need a huge planning stage before you even start anything. To which I find fun the preplan. Admittedly also because the current game play is so repetitive; Watering and animal care in the morning, chasing after Emma for her daily gift, and then wrapping around foraging a couple of times before the night watering. It doesn't help either that there is no quality of life improvements as you go, apparently not even power berries this time.

The path to repairing a town is kind of a fun mechanic to be real; ACNH widely disappointed me for not really being the civilization maker it promised, Hometown story is interesting for a similar was in how it runs, Pioneers of Olive Town sometimes is the perfect amount of town rebuilder, and of course the ever popular stardew valley is great for slowly building up additions to an already pretty sound townspace, and I yearn for easier access to Animal Parade for how lovely the area is even if a bit of a travelling nightmare at points. I don't expect ANB to be revolutionary necessarily but I'm excited to GET to the point where I can suddenly dish out a bunch of town support. It's kind of cool how there's barely love interests as well because of it.

#tomyo's backlog #backlog #tomyo's backlog adventure #harvest moon #harvest moon a new beginning #bokumono #bokujo #story of seasons #tomyo says shit

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wonderandwanderinginmexicocity · 5 months

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The Grasshoppers of Oaxaca

I have always been interested in the connection between food, history, and culture. I previously wrote about how the food of today can be a road map of past migration and cultural fusion, and how it can explain the evolution of a place like modern Mexico. Like communion in the Catholic Church, food can be a connection to our ancestors, a process and ritual that transcends time and generations. Food can be a bridge to the past…if we can find it.

Unfortunately we do not know a whole lot about what was eaten in Mesoamerica before the arrival of the Spanish. This is due in part to the great devastation brought by war, genocide, and disease during the Spanish Conquest, and approximately 90% of the population died by 1530. So much cultural knowledge and insight was lost. Another factor is that much of what the Spanish brought with them to the New World became common and integral to contemporary Mexican cuisine: Lime, honey, meat, and cheese.

We do have a few Spanish sources that wrote about what the Mexica ate before the Conquest. Hernán Cortés wrote in letters that Emperor Moctezuma’s feasts could be all day affairs, and Bernal Díaz del Castillo wrote in his book, The Conquest of New Spain, the following: “Every day they cooked fowls, turkeys, local partridges, quail, tame and wild duck, venison, boar, marsh birds, pigeons, hares and rabbits, also many other kinds of birds and beasts native to their country, so numerous that I cannot quickly name them all.” But this is of course describing how the most powerful man in the Triple Alliance ate on special occasions. The Great Speaker was hardly the common man. While Moctezuma may have eaten well, people had to do their best catching wild game like duck or raising the only two domesticated animals, turkeys and chihuahuas (which were considered food). How did the common people get enough protein to survive?

On a recent trip to Oaxaca, I was shocked by how common it was to eat grasshoppers (in Mexican Spanish chapulin, which comes from the Nahua word chapollin). They would sell them in large quantities on the street, or you could order them in dishes like quesadillas and omelets. From the U.S. perspective, eating insects seems strange, but is common in many parts of the world. They are quite common in a warm place like Oaxaca and not hard to find. People enjoy the crunch they provide, like one would from a potato chip. In Mexico City, you can order guacamole with chapulines. Many Mexicans are proud of the cultural heritage this food provides, and there is a sense it connects them to their culture and history and land. It may seem like a bizarre food to a foreigner, but it has some merits.

While eating grasshoppers in Mexico is both a thing of the past and the present, it may well be a thing of the future. Insects are a bountiful natural resource of animal protein in the world today, in part because there are a lot more insects than people. They do not have the carbon footprint of cows, chickens, and pigs, and do not require the time, space, or resources those animals require. In his collection of short stories Brief Encounters with Che Guevara, Ben Fountain writes the story of a PHD student that came to the jungles of Colombia to study a rare colony of parrots only to be kidnapped by a Marxist rebel force clearly based on FARC. At one point, the graduate student, John Blair, makes the case to his captors that eating insects is the future, because they are affordable and sustainable. The heavily armed rebels laugh in his sunburnt face. “We are not fighting for the revolution to eat bugs, cabrón,” they say dismissively.

And yet, here in Mexico, the future may already be here.

#grasshoppers #mexicanfood #mexicanhistory #mexico #mexicocity #oaxaca #cuidaddeoaxaca #travelgram #culturamexicana #mexicanculture #mexicancuisine #cdmx #comidaprehispanica

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dubioushonour · 10 months

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Rapidly approaching having been playing this game for, like, a year, which is WILD to me. This the longest I've ever stuck with any phone game. So! Some miscellaneous fun facts:

My starting group was More More Jump, but I mostly main WonderlandsxShowtime now (what can I say, I love a ragtag bunch of misfits)

My favorite character is Emu, followed by Tsukasa and Mizuki. This is currently my favorite Emu card and if I don't get it when the event drops, I MIGHT just cry

My favorites from each group, in general are Emu, Saki, Mizuki, Akito, Minori

My favorite Vocaloids are the same as when I was 13 Kagamines, but a very special shout-out to the VBS ones for being very fun and stylish. I have more 4* Lens than literally any other character.

My favorite commissioned songs are Niccori Survey Team, Becoming Potatoes and Lower (because I was obsessed with them before I even knew what Project Sekai was). Shout-out to Bug, though, for also being a jam I enjoyed until the event dropped and I realized it was ALSO a commission (this going to keep happening)

My favorite covers (just off the top of my head) are As You Like, Melty Land Nightmare, Traffic Jam, Villain and Tale of the Deep Sea Lily

My least favorite for petty reasons right now is Remote Control (because it's!! boring!!!! The map is fun though)

I am a thumbs player! I have seen people play with their other fingers and I just don't know how you guys do that, tbh!

I am neutral on flick notes, but I hate!!! Sliders! The long, thin ones always mess me up. I enjoy faster paced songs with a reasonable amount of spam notes.

The highest difficulty song I've FC'd as of writing this was At Gods Mercy on Master (29)

I don't remember what my starting username was at this point, but I've been polysho agenda on there for so long I'm worried about changing it xD which is fine though, I get a lot of nice friend requests because of it and the very occasional, very funny hate message

I am a Wonderhoy spammer in the group shows and I will not apologize. I greatly enjoy stamps and I use Good Luck and Good Vibes probably the most.

I'm only on the EN server, so I'm pretty behind on most of the new events. Extremely excited for the cards though. I definitely play more for the rhythm game than the story, but I DO enjoy the story (there's just a lot of it to catch up on @_@)

The list of songs I want in this game is ever expansive and ever changing, but SPECIFICALLY I think it would be fucking hysterical to get a WxS cover of Imitation Black. They WONT, because they're COWARDS, but I think it would be great. I respect that it's a rock song though and would also accept a Leo/need cover, but it's not allowed to have any men in it. (They can have their own Alternate Vocal Cover)

#prsk #project sekai #I'm going to be in the midst of a move #when the actual Year Playing This Game hits #but still the realization struck me #and im surprised im still here tbh #im having a lot of fun and i would like to continue playing this game #for awhile #<3

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sprinklecipher · 1 year

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What do you call That Bug? Bug Map Survey Results

I recently collected a bunch of data on the names used for a particular kind of cricket-like North American bug (pictured below) with the goal of trying to make a dialect map, and the (initial) results are in!

I’ll go through the results from the survey in detail below, but please note that survey submissions remain open for possible future updates, so if you didn’t participate in the survey before but would like to, you can find the survey here.

That Bug

To try to minimize bias towards the various names for the relevant bug, I will refer to the kind of bug the survey is about as “That Bug” or “The Bug.”

For reference, here’s the list of names for That Bug that I included in the survey, each of which was mentioned as a vernacular term for The Bug by at least 2 plausibly credible sources:

Child of the Earth Devil's baby Jerusalem cricket Potato bug Sand cricket Sand puppy Stone cricket Skull cricket

Quick Caveat

A major assumption of the current analyses is that respondents selected “I am unfamiliar with this bug” if they were unfamiliar with That Bug, and, correspondingly, that any terms that respondents selected actually reflect terms that they are familiar with and would use. It’s possible that some respondents might not have actually recognized That Bug but selected one or more of the options anyway, which I do not have the data to test for directly. I suspect the term “potato bug” might have been selected occasionally by respondents who had heard the term being used in reference to a different kind of bug (as both roly polies and Colorado potato beetles are colloquially known by that name), which would mean that “potato bug” may have been selected more often than it “should” have. This is just a hunch, however.

Sample

A total of 291 respondents completed the survey by the cutoff date for the current sample (April 30, 2023), with 254 of those respondents being from the US, 7 from Canada, 7 from the UK, 5 Australia, and 13 from other countries that had less than 5 responses each (for a total of 32 responses from countries other than the US). Five respondents did not provide any location-related information.

(For the record, the sample skews so heavily American because I blazed the post advertising the survey to a US target audience, since That Bug is a North American insect.)

For the American respondents, 71 were from Western states, 52 were from the Midwest, 47 were from the Northeast, 80 were from the South, and 2 were from the non-continental US, based on the US Census definitions for those regions. Two respondents indicated that they were from the US but did not provide any additional region-level information. Note that a small handful of respondents mentioned being from multiple different states. For the sake of consistency, such respondents were grouped according to the first state that they listed.

Familiarity with That Bug

Respondents were considered “familiar” with That Bug for the purposes of this analysis if they did not select the “I am unfamiliar with this bug” option AND provided at least one “valid” name for That Bug, either by selecting one of the pre-existing name options or by specifying something in the “other” field that could be reasonably understood as a name specifically referring to the relevant bug. “Other” responses that were overly vague (e.g., simply “cricket”) or that referred to a different kind of bug (e.g., “mole cricket”*) were considered “irrelevant” for the purposes of this definition.

*Here’s a link to a video of a mole cricket burrowing into some dirt. It’s not really relevant to this post, I just think it’s neat :) Anyway, I can definitely see how someone could mistake That Bug for a mole cricket—they look fairly similar, especially from the photo provided in the survey

By this definition, 101 respondents were familiar with The Bug and 190 respondents were unfamiliar with it, for an overall total of 34.7% of respondents being familiar with The Bug.

Among American respondents, the familiarity rate was 37.0%, while for non-American respondents it was 18.8%.

Overall familiarity rates by US region are depicted in the graph below:

Statistically, the South and West have significantly higher familiarity rates than do the Midwest, Northeast, or non-American regions (which do not differ). It’s probably worth mentioning that That Bug’s natural range is mostly restricted to the Western states within the US, at least as far as I have been able to discern.

Here’s the familiarity rates by geographic subregion (although note that the sample sizes start to get pretty small here, so take them with a grain of salt):

To sum up, only just over a third of the sample were familiar with That Bug, although the familiarity rate varies substantially by region. But, among those who are familiar with The Bug, what names did they call it?

Names for That Bug

The following graph depicts the pattern of responses across all completed surveys:

A strong majority of respondents selected “I am unfamiliar with this bug” and nothing else.

Restricting the graph to respondents who were familiar with The Bug (as defined previously) produces the following:

Most respondents who were familiar with That Bug referred to it as a “Jerusalem Cricket” and nothing else (40/101, 39.6% of “familiar” respondents), with the second most common response pattern being “Potato Bug” only (21/101, 20.8%). Interestingly, the third most common response pattern was the specific combination of “Jerusalem Cricket” AND “Potato Bug” (16/101, 15.8%). The remaining name options (and combinations thereof) occurred relatively infrequently among responses.

Adding up the number of occurrences of each name among familiar respondents (which takes into account cases where multiple names were selected) produces the following graph:

Some Notable “Other” responses:

One respondent entered “Kudüs cırcır böceği,” which to my understanding is the Turkish for “Jerusalem cricket.” I was unsure of whether I should count it towards “Jerusalem cricket” or not, but I ultimately decided not to. If you disagree with that decision, pretend that the “Jerusalem cricket” counter is 1 higher for all graphs that include the non-USA data One respondent entered “Satan’s fetus,” which I initially thought was a joke, but after looking into it a little, there is evidence that “Satan’s fetus” is actually another existing vernacular name for That Bug. Neat! Also notable among the “other” responses entered, one respondent noted that they and some other people that they know refer to That Bug as a “jailbug”, due to its stripes. I absolutely love that as a name for The Bug and would love for it to be adopted more widely. Regardless of whether it’s widely used enough to qualify as a regional name, it will always be a name for That Bug in my heart :)

In summary, “Jerusalem cricket” is the most commonly used name overall, and occurred a little over 50% more frequently than did the second-most-common term, “Potato bug,” which in turn occurred about three times as frequently as did the third-most-common term, “Sand cricket.” But, does this pattern hold across regions?

Names for That Bug by Region

(Note that all of the analyses in this section include data from “familiar” respondents only—which is to say that respondents who selected the “I am unfamiliar with this bug” option or who only provided an “invalid” response have been excluded.)

Here are the names selected for That Bug, broken out by region:

For all major regions of the US, “Jerusalem cricket" was the most commonly used name for That Bug, followed by “Potato bug”. Other terms were uncommon, although a couple of apparent regional differences emerged. In particular, “Child of the Earth” occurred exclusively in the West (where it was selected by 3 respondents, for a selection rate of 9.7% among familiar respondents). Additionally, “sand cricket,” was chosen by Southern respondents more frequently compared to respondents from other regions (6 occurrences, 16.7% of “familiar” respondents).

That Bug was rarely familiar to non-American respondents, but “potato bug” was the most commonly used term among that subpopulation (with 2 responses). “Jerusalem cricket”, “sand cricket”, and “sand puppy” were also each selected an additional time by non-Americans, as was the previously mentioned Turkish phrase “Kudüs cırcır böceği” (which, if counted as equivalent to “Jerusalem cricket” would eliminate the very slight preference for “potato bug” among non-American respondents).

Here's a map with a brief summary of responses per region (US only):

Sample sizes become quite small when looking at US subregions, but, for reference, here’s the relevant graph:

Interestingly, the pattern observed for the broad Census regions (Jerusalem cricket > Potato bug, by a moderately large margin) does not consistently hold among individual subregions. Notably, the subregions vary widely with respect to how frequently “potato bug” was selected relative to “Jerusalem cricket”, with some regions showing only a slight preference for “Jerusalem cricket” over “potato bug” (South Atlantic, East South Central, Pacific West, New England), while “Jerusalem cricket” was substantially favored in others (West South Central, West North Central, Mountain West). The East North Central subregion of the Midwest in particular was notable for showing a slight preference for “Potato bug” over “Jerusalem cricket”, in contrast to any other US region.

Do these differences reflect true regional dialect patterns or is this just random noise? I unfortunately don’t know the answer to that, but I am intrigued.

In any case, here’s a map depicting the pattern of responses by subregion (although, again, please note that the sample sizes per subregion are generally tiny, especially when restricted to familiar respondents only, so take the subregional patterns with a major grain of salt!):

Summary and Conclusions

That Bug is relatively obscure, with only a minority of respondents (roughly a third, overall) being familiar with it. “Jerusalem cricket” can probably be considered the most uncontroversial name for That Bug, as it was selected by a majority of respondents who were familiar with The Bug and was the dominant name for The Bug in almost every region and subregion investigated here. “Potato bug” was also commonly selected as a name for it, although much less frequently than “Jerusalem cricket.” All other possible names were uncommon and potentially regional.

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in the survey! And special thanks in particular to everyone who commented about their experiences with (or general reaction to) That Bug, or who left some kind words. To all the entomologists, aspiring entomologists, and general bug enthusiasts: it was wonderful reading about your love of little critters like That Bug. Reading the comments genuinely made my day :)

As I mentioned up top, the survey remains open, so you can still participate if you’d like to! I can’t guarantee that I will publish updated results, but I would like to revisit this topic in the future with more data. I’d love to see if the subregion trends hold up, and if I ever got a lot more data, I might even be able to look at state-level trends (although I’m almost certainly being too ambitious thinking about that!).

That’s all for now—take care and have a great day! ~

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cauli-flawa · 1 year

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Alright! Welcome, welcome to the Rustwood Brotherhood! I’m glad you chose (or maybe you didnt) to visit.

This is Elderbury. It looks rather humble - I prefer the term “rustic”, though that might not apply here.

If you want, you came come take a look around!

Firstly, and I am VERY proud of this - the kitchen/brewery! Xal and Basilia take day and night shifts working at the stove, preparing some yummy preserved survival meals with the meat we hunt or the rice we grow. We don’t ever need a fridge. They’re overrated. We’re a peaceful settlement in the middle of the forest, who needs power?

Speaking of rice...that is, for the most part, all we eat. Behold...

WELCOME TO THE RICE FIELDS, MOTHERFUCKER

Yep. Each harvest yields hundreds upon hundreds of rice. It’s enough to sustain us indefinitely, even through Decembrary. We always end up having at least 1000-2000 rice by the time winter comes.

Let’s look at some more, smaller crops...

The healroot farm. This is where we get our “backup medicine”. We want to rely on industrial medication, which we can always get from nearby townships.

The cotton fields...still in progress. Don’t worry - we’re working on it!

The potato fields. We usually don’t eat these. The potatoes are for one purpose only - and that is to feed our livestock.

Icon the bison and our beloved Hermine the yak - these two are our lovely herd animals. Hermine supplies us with milk, and Icon gives us wool to sell. We are pretty big in the leather trading industry, and we’re hoping to get some good cash selling our beer as well! And we have PLENTY of that, lemme tell you.

This litter home in the mountains is a work-in-progress. Our new love bugs are gonna live here soon.

This home, though, is not so nice. It’s a prison cell. We rarely ever capture any prisoners, because we usually don’t find any of interest to us.

I am proud to say, only TWO organs have ever been harvested in there. And trust me, we had our reasons.

This is our only current power source - the geothermal generator! We’re only intending to use it for our laboratory-in-progress...

Behold! You can see our mechanoid workbenches, with a mechanoid in progress. This place also doubles as a workshop for various things.

Directly underneath the laboratory, with multiple safe and quick entryways and exits...our hospital! We always keep our medicine close by.

This here is the art room - oh, sorry, Basilia! I didn’t mean to interrupt. Well, there she is, trying her hand at artwork.

And finally... the place where it all began...!

The Shelter! Where we work, eat, and sleep (for now). Almost everyone is welcome inside the Shelter.

We also have a few barricades, embrasures, and wire fences sprinkled around here and there for protection. We used embrasures to mostly block off a corner of the map, where the geothermal generator is.

...Huh? What’s this? I can’t tell what may be inside...but for some reason, I feel like there is something dangerous lurking behind those brick walls...

Ahem! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this little tour of our town. Maybe we’ll see you again sometime.

#rimworld

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jasonbrown1991 · 1 year

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Raising the “Wild Child”

https://ridgelineclothing.co.nz/kids

Kids naturally touch anything they can get their hands on and love to move – if only we all had that energy level! Pair that childlike sense of wonder with an outdoor setting, and you have a wild child: a happier, wiser little human being who recognizes the beauty and fun found in nature.

The reality is that not all learning, skill development, or emotional development happens in the classroom. In fact, this loud, messy, self-directed game you might see on school playgrounds and play dates also builds life skills like curiosity, resilience, leadership, resourcefulness, and creativity.

We like to say the outdoors is the best classroom in the world. The lack of technology and toys encourages children to think outside the box, using their creativity and imagination to have fun. Raising your children to become aware of and connected to the world around them is as simple as encouraging outdoor exploration and making a conscious effort to create little adventures for your children. Set aside dedicated "outdoor hours," think of some play ideas if your kids get stuck, and enjoy watching them rediscover the world.

Adventure & Playtime Ideas

Running out of ideas for weekend adventures or farm playtime?

Here are some of our favorite outdoor activities for kids!

Visit a playground, community park, or garden if you live in the city, drop the kids off at the farm, or take a short drive to the nearest national park or beach to make the most of these ideas.

Show your kids how to make grass wreaths and whistles

Go bug hunting to find as many different bugs and bugs as possible

Streams and riverbeds for gold panning

Skipping pebbles onto a pond or lake

Climbing trees

Teach your kids to read maps and compass

Make decorative hiking poles for your next family hike

Attract birds and lizards to your garden by creating bird feeders and lizard dens

Give your kids their own little patch in your garden to grow their favorite flowers or vegetables (hint: green beans, carrots, potatoes and cherry tomatoes are very easy to grow)

Host an outdoor photo contest, with categories like 'Most Interesting Cloud', 'Biggest Insect' and 'Most Unique Find'

Set up a tent for back camping or go on a real camping trip

Create holiday ornaments with pine cones, fallen leaves, painted rocks, etc.

Teach your kids to fish

Explore the tide pools

Create an earthworm farm to recycle food scraps from your kitchen into compost for the vegetable or flower garden

Take the kids on your next hunt, ask them to help you spot/spot with your binoculars and help you dress up your prey

Creating an outdoor obstacle course

Stargazing and cloud gazing

Teach your kids wilderness survival skills, such as how to build a fire, create shelter, scavenge for food, and provide basic first aid

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silvermuffins · 1 year

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Pokemon Scarlet LIveblog! Part 7! I think!

W ar still at war with my E ky. I haveee takeen down five gyms, three titans, and three bases.

I am in Montenevra. I am in Zapapico. I got th Auspicious Armor. I am back in Montenevra. Oh man th battle court here is so cool.

Into th gym! Jacq is here! I may not know MY treasure, but Fani sure knows hers! awww jacq.

mayb after th gym i'll go back and grab a surskit. i need to had south anyway. my kingdom for a functional e key oh my god i hope this isn't too illegible.

oh snap I'm opening for the MC of RIP hrself?! oh...wait it's just battling? oh. oh, double battles....eh. man this gym tst is a li'l dull huh. ?! LANI?! DO I HAVE A DOPPELGANGER?!

You doppelganger! You pale companion! Why do you mimic my lovesickness that tormented me here so long ago?!

.....or something I don't remember the old P2IS opening off the top of my head, it's been a minutee

oh yah Sotero is a permanent team member now

....WAIT. MC SLEDGE. AS IN *MC HAMMER*. i cannot-- i can't. i just can't.

(can't touch this, I mean)

sir that would have been slightly harder if you hadn't blow'd up your own pokemon

i feel like Ryme is going to decide I'm her daughter now

wish I could hear the concert :c OH WAIT. OH SHIT HELLO. oh this is fun oh my gosh!

OH MY GOD i can challeng her to a rap battle?! I WANNA MAKE HER WORK

aww :c and so this is a doubl battl too.

honstly i love Ryme. her rhythm could use work, but this is profssional pokemon - I was never gonna get BDG. I love that she's an older woman who raps, though? you break those norms!

OH MY GOSH PUPPY

i actually stratted that a little, despite the main strat being brute fucking force.

hi hassel- oh my gosh. hi. you should do that more often. Okay lt's go gt that Surskit! After a picnic with a confusing sandwich involving...cram cheese, potato salad, chrry tomato, cucumber, and pinapple....but i think i want bug ncounter powr so hmmm. mor sandwichs until I mak it work. goddammit i keep gtting catching powr: bug. I don't ned that. ugh mayb i'll mak a rcip, if i hav on.

FOUND ONE THAT DOES IT oh i still get to build the sammich...well I found a Ralts, I need on of those. Gooble. FOUND ONE. Urlai!

Okay now we can had south to Tulip. I have gotten distractd and oncee again fallen off a cliff. theere is a cav here, I wondr where it will takee me...most of the cavees I've been through haven't been good caves. gonna xplore.

HOLY SHIT DRAGONAIR lectic tera...wait since whn is Daya "Daya the Reliable Partner"?! Dragonair will b Savne. Bonus, Stabby th Qwilfish and Hoona th Finneon and Chapiesk th Luvdisc. Keku the Tynamo. Duchae the Skrelp.

found a guy trying to dlivr a pizza....poor man. Oh there's another stake in this cave! yoink. OKay whre the fuck am I now? The orchard?

map says thr's wild eevee here so time to encounter power normal....maks sense the basic bitch sammich would make for basic bitch pokemon. let's home it works. ....scrw it i hav objctives to complte.

Okay this cav gos to Alfornada but I won't mak it on foot...? thr's also a dtour down th cliff. Ther's also Deino! Named Compky now. Oh this is a decent cavee!

doodeedoo exploring Balto is finally evolving into Corviknight, so tim to swap out for Surskit. ...Oh I found my way to that beach. Man where do I find Veluza? Hembo is finally volving so I can mov on.

Mildly concernd that this town's name sounds like "all for nada"...and who the hell decideeed to found a town in such a difficult to reach place??? Wll, I made it!

The fuck ar you? OH w good I bet Capsakid bcoms you. aaaa nw POkmon hr. Urlai volvd so I can swap out for...Jigglypuff, i hav moon stones, and it'll b kirlia and ralts aftr this.

i think this is it for tonight though i nd to b at work in...ight hours and twnty minuts

#letty plays pokemon scarlet #letty plays shit #livebloggin #my kingdom for a fully functional keyboard

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drink-tang-gang · 3 years

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daffy:*fondly remembers the early decades of termite terrace as a time of complete creative freedom, the burden of being a global mascot was nigh inconceivable, the only era he truly felt respected and appreciated for the genre he created and who he was*

bugs: *remembers the early decades of termite terrace with the constant risk of being canned after each debute short which were critically dismissed and audiences found annoying, no solid personality from being tossed from director to director like a hot potato cool headed and snarky personality was a response to the aggression, which ironically put him on the map*

#looney tunes #bugs bunny #daffy duck #this isn’t head canon this is literally text. this mindset happens in Lt media kfkfkfjfj #tldr #daffy: gosh I miss termite terrace! don’t you?#bugs: *was born with an identity crisis and hasn’t sit down to process it in 80 years* ehhh nah #they both agree the mid 40s was a good time for everyone in general

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jangmi-latte · 3 years

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(click image for better quality)

Name: Fechin Fiachra (フェーチン • フィアチラ)

Nicknames: Fechi (Epel), Little Bird (Lilia), Burnt potato (Vil), Monsieur Raven (Rook), Fechra (Ace), Raven (Malleus)

Class: 1-B, Student No. 07

Birthday: June 09

Age: 17

Height: 168 cm (5'6")

Dominant Hand: Ambidextrous

Favorite subject: Ancient Spell

Likes: Spears/Polearms, running

Dislikes: Rook Hunt, Mushrooms

Favorite Food: Curry Buns

Least Favorite Food: Candy

Special Skill: Vision, Geography, Martial Arts

Club: Horse Riding Club

A young curious boy-turned-raven who decides to remain human after being accidentally transformed. Though academically coping, he excels in martial arts and could walk around Twisted Wonderland without a need of a map or a GPS. He has an attachment towards Vil Schoenheit yet despises Rook Hunt. He would also tail around to those he is close to. Fechin is behave most of the time yet won't hesitate to use his sharp tongue towards those he dislikes and has pissed him off.

Facts:

➻ when he turned human, he tried to eat bugs he would pluck from trees. after finding out they aren't edible for humans plus disgusting taste, he avoids them like the plague.

➻ rook tried to hunt him down when he was still a raven.

➻ epel turned him human on accident after a minor incident in the lab. fechin surprised the first year and he threw the potion at him. hence, fechin having big respect for epel and being grateful for his accident.

➻ when crowley found him, he dragged him to the mirror and the mirror instantly sorted him to diasomnia. fechin nearly threw a tantrum if it wasn't for lilia comforting him and epel promising he would be with him during school hours

➻ his attachment towards vil happened when the latter (after epel dragged him to pomefiore out of panic) cleaned him up and dressed him while scolding him. though deemed clueless, fechin felt at home.

➻ he eats anything, really. he tends to get hungry pretty quickly and easily. though he does hate eating lilia's food.

➻ he pulled on malleus' horns once out of curiosity.

➻ when he's curious, he tends to stare and blink at the object or person for minutes before speaking.

➻ naturally, he's quiet or speaks quietly to his seniors. he's respectful yet is currently learning more formal vocabulary via silver's teaching. when he's mad, similar to epel, he will lose all formality and won't hesitate to throw hands when necessary.

➻ protective of his territory and love ones. especially epel, lilia, and vil.

➻ he borrows epel or lilia's phone sometimes. he doesn't want to own one. he plays games or just watches whatever the owner is doing.

➻ he floats as a way of relaxing (may it be reading a book or sleeping).

➻ his fashion sense is...casually odd. all his clothes were majorly from lilia (also his money came from who knows where).

➻ put him near rook and he'll bite.

➻ is scared of horses at first when joining the horse riding club. riddle nearly had a breakdown just by convincing him.

➻ he likes deuce but won't hesitate to punch him when he goes delinquent mode. as for ace, well, their first meeting involved deuce having to hold fechin back. reason? ace stole the apple he was about to eat.

➻ looks up to jack. he wants to be as motivated as he is. yet, he's scared of leona and ruggie.

➻ he can talk to other birds!

➻ would barge inside scarabia and octavinelle for food. he tried cooking once but it was under trey and jamil's supervision. if he would be under lilia's supervision, he said he might make something that would kill malleus with no intent. riddle tried teaching him too but he accidentally left the food in the oven while he was with epel.

࿐ "I want to go back to Vil... Wait, nevermind. I'm hungry... Have you seen Epel? Oh! I have to feed the birds outside!"

˖꒰ here he is! my little boy, fechin! i hope you like him. if you have any questions regarding his character or story, i am open to answer! he'll play a big role in this cafe soon. any form of fanart is appreciated but the original design above should not be reposted. stay tuned! ꒱

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland oc #twst fanart #twst #diasomnia #jangmi latte #lilia vanrouge #vil schoenheit #rook hunt #epel felmier #riddle rosehearts #jack howl #leona kingscholar #ruggie bucchi #malleus draconia

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