Tumgik
#how many configuration do we have here………
polyamorouscultureis · 11 hours
Note
Don't know if this is for advice but I need to confess this to SOMEONE outside the 4 of us. For many reasons, no one outside the 4 people mentioned here know anything about this
I'm a happily married man with a wonderful wife of 10 years. She's my best friend, my lover, and every bit the partner I need.
We're both well aware of our poly natures and have even tried (unsuccessfully) to open up to a third. It wasn't the right person or fit but we at least tried. Outside of that we've both had some FwB and it's never had any negative impact on our relationship.
But now I actually fell in love.
I fell in love with a streamer and what started as parasocial became just plain social to becoming very intimate and real. The kicker, this streamer girl is also happily married to her own man (4 years now) and they are also open to poly.
After a few weeks of this buildup, we had our first "date" over Discord video and all partners involved were nothing but supportive. It's long distance but the opportunity to visit each other is very real. The opportunity for sex is very real and very much discussed. The possibility of group sex in many configurations is on the table.
And through all this, we've firmly established our commitments and love to our spouses first and foremost, while still talking every day and very much falling in love with each other more and more.
I know all the important parts of navigating a poly relationship, and with how open all communication has been across all parties involved, I'd say we're doing okay.
I'm just feeling a little overwhelmed with how much I feel the euphoria of new love. Falling in love wasn't something I ever expected to happen to me again. I honesty didn't think I was capable of it. This wasn't me choosing someone, I had not say in the matter. My heart just said "this one" and took the rest of me along for the ride.
I don't know if what I need is advice but this is such an "out there" situation for me. Outside of the 4 of us, there's no one to talk to about what's going on. Partially because none of our close friends/family are poly and wouldn't really understand the dynamics, especially when they've gone through problems of cheating. And we also can't let it get out that a streamer fell in love with a viewer, for reasons I hope are obvious.
So this is my anonymous confession. Any whatever words you have for me, I'll take them.
This is so exciting! I'm so happy you're getting this opportunity with so much support from your respective partners behind you! It absolutely makes sense to be overwhelmed and probably pretty nervous about meeting in person for the first time, but just enjoy the moment as much as you can. Falling in love, especially for the second time, is intimidating, and comes with complicated feelings, but it's also so much fun. I hope things go well for you all and that you'll keep me updated on how things go! We all struggle a bit with lack of community to share these things with I think, so I adore being the void to shout into. <3
30 notes · View notes
kirbyskisses · 11 months
Text
miguel o’hara x reader || “te amo” (masterlist)
the first night miguel is in your universe fills him with all sorts of conflicting emotions.
wc: 1,063
cw: an angsty line or two, light mention of blood. (minors/ageless blogs don’t interact)
Tumblr media
when miguel quite literally inserts himself into your life he‘s not always sure what to do or what to say.
yes, he’s watched your miguel; he’s seen all his similarities and all the intricacies of this earth and memorized them through screens and study but he hadn’t plotted or planned to be here.
this earth’s miguel died. he saw an opportunity and he took it. a spur of the moment decision to pursue this happier life.
it should be easy.
just be miguel o’hara.
but when he first comes through the door of his house so early in the morning that the outside is covered in darkness, being “miguel o’hara” is the hardest thing in the world.
this is not his home. its layout is similar, but it’s filled with a love he’s never had before.
the fridge is decorated with baby photos and newspaper clippings of spider-man, a suit identical to his own. love permeates through every inch of the place.
it permeates through pictures of a precious baby girl who couldn’t be more than a few months. the daughter of the other miguel. the one he gets to father.
and you - the wife. his wife. the most beautiful woman in the world.
the woman who doesn’t know that her real husband is dead and replaced. the one rushing towards him before he can even process any guilt of what being that replacement might mean.
“¡míguel! do you have any idea what time it is?!”
he does.
he knows it’s 3am and that you were like likely waiting up for your husband - for the miguel o’hara of this earth to come back. he knows all to well that the bloodied, beaten miguel he walked by never will come back - there’s only him for you to chastise for worrying you so badly.
and he knows this is the moment where it is too late to turn back, too late to leave to his own nueva york because how could he? it would be unbearable to leave you alone with your sweet little girl to wake up in the morning in a world with no husband, no father and no spider-man.
he’ll take the anger and worry of coming home late if he can prevent that.
it’s better for the both of you.
it’s better that he’s your miguel o’hara now. it’s better that you’re his wife now.
it’s better this way, he convinces himself.
“we made a deal, papí!” you huff, all too ready to reprimand him. “tonight was your night to put her down! we said no web-slinging unless there was a total emergency…”
you trail off, eyes meeting his. they look relieved and tired and overwhelmed for a reason you can’t configure. your voice immediately softens once you realize your words, be they english or spanish, have no way of getting through.
“¿míguel…?”
he doesn’t respond, and when you put your hand on his grizzled cheek he sinks into your touch wordlessly as if it is the first time he has ever felt such romantic softness.
“qué te pasa, papí?” you stroke his face, taking a long look at him. “there…was an emergency, wasn’t there? you know you can tell me anything - ay!!”
you let out a yelp of surprise as he pulls you into him, leaning down to smell your hair and squeeze your small form tight - he wants to memorize everything. all the sensory details that he couldn’t get through lyla or a screen.
he mumbles, gruffly. “we lost a good one today… couldn’t save him. i’m sorry…”
and you whisper his name and hold tight, unaware of what he really means because how could you be? but he doesn’t feel any remorse for deceiving you - for letting you think he means some good natured cop.
after all, so many spider-men have lost one before. how is this any different?
how could he feel remorse when you hum in sympathy and kiss up and down his face? your lips are so soft and reassuring, as is your voice.
“it wasn’t your fault, papí. even spider-man can’t save everyone. i’m just happy you’re home safe and alive.”
that almost breaks him and his hold gets tighter. your fingers are in his hair - your breath calm and unsuspecting. he could get used to this.
finally, after a hold that seems to lasts an eternity, your voice rings out and breaks the two of you apart.
“estás herido, mi amor? there’s blood on your suit…”
“no. i-it’s… not mine.” he’s both lying and telling the truth. it isn’t his blood, it’s that of the miguel left behind. but right now and forever, they’re the same.
“i’ll wash up. get some sleep, querida.” he takes your hand from his cheek and kisses your knuckles - relishing in your touch before letting you go off to bed.
“i’m sorry for making you wait so long for me.” he barely manages to whisper out and you give this gentle smile and coo, arms around his neck.
“you don’t have to apologize for saving people, miguel. it’s what you do and it’s why i love you.”
for being a man so much bigger than you, he seems small and soft. he melts at the proclamation and puts his forehead to yours, desperate to hear it all again.
“dime de nuevo.” tell me again. he needs to hear it again - that he’s loved. that he’s celebrated by someone as kind as you.
all his anxiety melts when your soft lips slot against his once. “te amo, míguel.”
then twice. “te amo, spiderman.”
and then a third time. “i love every part of you. good and bad. the one who saves people, the one who looks out for others, the one with secrets, the one who fails sometimes and has to come home late because he’s doing what he thinks is right. sharp teeth, webs, scars and all, entiendes?”
and for the first time he kisses you - because this means you love him. every version of him including the one he is now.
“eres una bendición.” he murmurs, kissing the shell of your ear. you’re a blessing. because only a blessing could have given him the opportunity for something as amazing as a beautiful you and your daughter.
if only he could have found a way to make it last forever.
3K notes · View notes
polyamships · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media
[ID: “Polyam Shipping Day / 14th of every month”. Next to the text is a red infinity sign that finishes in a heart on top. Above the text are rows of stylized hearts in the colors of both versions of the polyam pride flag (black, red, bright blue, light green, dark green, light blue, navy). /end ID]      
January 14th 2024 is our 35th Polyam Shipping Day.
The optional theme for it is: 🤼Conflict⚔️
This could be about the many ways in which a relationship can come into conflict: conflicting schedules, goals, needs. It can also be about how they decide to resolve those issues. Maybe it's about one of them taking conflict resolution seminars to deal with the polycule after a major conflict arose. It can also be about social conflict or being in a warzone. How does your ship deal with being in a violent setting? Do they stay together through it all? What happens when the conflict escalates and they must choose between allegiances? What about conflict that's larger than life such as good versus evil? On a different note, it can be about the internal conflict about jealousy versus compersion, or conflict that comes with discovering you're polyamorous whether in a relationship or not. In the literal sense, it can be about fighting and arguments: who mediates? Who avoids mediating like the plague?
...
We’ll be tracking #PolyamShippingDay, and keeping an eye out for any @polyamships mentions too. We will reblog any polyam-positive fanworks featuring polyamorous ships of any configuration/type from any fandom. All ratings are welcome but anything nsfw/triggery should be warned for and behind a read more, as should very long tumblr fic.
You can also submit works directly to the blog or send us asks to let us know to check your blog for a post. If you’re posting on AO3, our collection name is ‘PolyamShippingDay‘ and you can post to the collection here. Only fanworks submitted/@ us on tumblr or in the official AO3 collection, or fanworks posted to our Dreamwidth community, are guaranteed to be included in our roundup. Please also let us know what prompt you created for, if any - people are always welcome to create for past prompts instead.
We have a Discord - invite here - if you want a place to chat about your ships or what you’re creating for them.
We look forward to seeing what people create for it. If you’re enthused about the day, we’d be especially appreciative of any reblogs to help spread the word about the event.
122 notes · View notes
noahsresources · 10 months
Text
reblogging from source with xkit rewritten!
hey friends!! okay, so i can't believe it took me this long to figure out how to do this, but thanks to the new xkit rewritten extension, we can bring back easily reblogging from the source! the newest update is kind of a pain for a lot of people, and it was much easier to just click on the username of the source where someone reblogged a post from. but thankfully, we can bring it back!!
i'm not the greatest at giving tutorials, but because i think this is important for a lot of us roleplayers, especially those who like reblogging things from their respective sources for whatever reason, and also generally for the majority of us who became frustrated with the new update. so, here's an attempt at teaching all y'all lovely people how to get your dash back to the way you liked it!! with that being said, it is greatly appreciated if this post is reblogged so as many people as possible see this tip!
TUTORIAL.
( skip to step 3 if you already have xkit rewritten installed. )
STEP 1. first, download xkit rewritten from tumblr's new xkit github page. right now it only works with chrome and firefox. instructions are under the "installation" section (you may have to scroll down a bit).
Tumblr media
STEP 2. once you install the extension, click on the xkit icon at the top of your browser. it should look like a small purple box with a white "x".
Tumblr media
STEP 3. under the "configuration" tab at the top of the pop-up, scroll down to the "tweaks" option. it should have a yellow icon with a gear and is (probably) the third option from the bottom.
Tumblr media
STEP 4. the "tweaks" option should be marked as "disabled", especially if you are using the new xkit for the first time or if you haven't seen this extension before. click the slider on the right side of the pop-up to turn the extension on.
Tumblr media
STEP 5. once you toggle the extension on, a drop-down menu should appear under the extension label. you can also toggle this menu by clicking on the extension label. click on "restore links to individual posts in the post header", which should be the first option in the drop-down menu.
Tumblr media
STEP 6. and that's it! you should now be able to click on the url next to another url and it should bring up the source that that person reblogged from. you may need to close the tumblr tab or restart your browser for the extension to take effect.
and that's it! i hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it was helpful! if you have any questions, suggestions, or reservations, do not hesitate to reach out! please remember to reblog to spread this information! <3
220 notes · View notes
leupagus · 9 months
Text
Working title is "Aziraphale is going to get a good grade in sex, something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve"
"So!" Aziraphale said, plopping himself down in the chair opposite. "Urophilia."
Crowley glowered at him from behind the safety of his third-best sunglasses and his mug.* He hadn't slept last night — he rarely wanted to, these days — yet it was somehow still too early for this. "No," he attempted.
"I know we neither of us go in for the more, er, granular human bodily functions," said Aziraphale, without even the slightest hint of listening. Crowley took a certain amount of comfort in the fact that he still found this annoying as — well, his former employer's residence. He'd worried, in a vague sort of way, that if Aziraphale came back and they worked things out, became a proper us, that he'd start thinking everything Aziraphale did was wonderful. But even true love had its limits, thank — well, his other former employer's residence. "Did I ever tell you, I tried defecating once? Terribly awkward business, I had to make an anus and everything. But Cicero was very obliging in teaching me about the stick."**
Conversations with Aziraphale tended to fall into one of three categories. Either he was humming away in his default cheeriness, in which case he'd burble happily along with whatever Crowley said for hours on end; or he was in a pet about something, in which case he'd be drier than the desert outside Eden and Crowley'd be lucky to escape without injury to his pride or person. Or he was like this, in which case Crowley's participation was purely decorative.
Still, they were getting some stares. Nina hadn't started tutting yet, but she would do soon. "I'm not pissing on you," he said, firm. "And vice versa."
"Oh, all right," Aziraphale huffed, pulling out his spectacles and wrapping the temple tips fussily around his ears. He peered down at the magazine he'd apparently brought with him; even from here, Crowley could see some illustrations. They were… illustrative.
"What," he said with the conviction that he would regret it, "Is that?"
"It's 'Kinks and Fetishes: An A to Z Guide,'" Aziraphale said, handing it over with all the glee of a dog showing off a rotted tennis ball it had found in the back garden. "I've been doing more research, you see. Apparently, there's all sorts of sex we could be getting up to. I truly had no idea there were so many—" he waved his other hand around vaguely. "Configurations."
"Does Glamour have a print edition anymore?" Crowley asked, thumbing through the pages. There were a lot of illustrations.
"Not as such," Aziraphale admitted. "But Muriel found it for me on the World Wide Web—"
"Don't call it that," Crowley sighed.
"—and you know how I dislike reading off of those… screens," he continued, making a moue of distaste. "So I made my own proof copy, as it were."
Under "Tentacles," there was a stern reminder that you shouldn't have sex with octopuses.*** "Angel," he started, then paused. "Vicarphilia?"
"I thought it was something to do with priests and things, but apparently not," Aziraphale said, leaning over the table to point out the next one. "What about whipping?"
"No fetishes that I could've done professionally," Crowley decided firmly, shutting the magazine. He waved it away, out to the Tadfield Library where Anathama would probably find it and laugh for a week, then try at least a half-dozen of them out on poor Newt.
* Nina had set one aside for him after a while, since he didn't mind the permanent stains that had developed along the inside. "Pretty sure those are scorchmarks, actually," she'd complained. "On the outside. What did you do to it?"
** Roman public toilets were aptly named — men would gather to have a bowel movement and a chat, cleaning themselves off with a sponge on the end of a length of wood. Hence the phrase, "Getting the wrong end of the stick," something decidedly less pleasant when taken out of its metaphor.
*** Accompanied by a picture of a young woman doing exactly that.
196 notes · View notes
monstrous-femme · 4 months
Text
So You Want to Write Poly Fic: A How-To from Your Favorite Poly Mutual
(i know for many of you I'm your only poly mutual so that works too)
This guide is going to rely heavily on Stranger Things pairings, because that's the fandom I'm currently writing in, but these concepts can apply to any fandom.
Expand your definition of Polyamory
Fandom loves the triad, and if this is what you want to write, there's no reason not to. However, three people all dating each other should not be the only thing you think of when you think of polyamory! Here are some other configurations for your consideration:
Jonathan is dating both Nancy and Argyle, but Nancy and Argyle are not dating each other
Chrissy is dating Robin, but sometimes makes out with Heather at parties.
Eddie, Steve, and Nancy are all dating each other, and Nancy has a separate relationship with Barb.
Steve and Robin have a queerplatonic relationship that they consider their primary partnership, but both date other people in a casual setting.
Chrissy is not ready to be in a relationship after breaking up with Jason, but has casual hookups with multiple people who are aware of and comfortable with the situation.
2. Pay attention to your dyads.
One of the most common mistakes I see in poly fics is trying to superimpose the same way you'd write monogamous pairings onto more people. The problem with this is that in a couple with only two people, you are only writing one relationship. In a poly ship, you're writing more, and probably a higher number than you think of. This is where the dyad comes in.
A dyad simply the relationship between two people. Say you're writing Nancy/Chrissy/Robin (as you should). You're not just writing the one relationship between the three of them. There are also three separate relationships to consider:
Chrissy/Nancy Robin/Chrissy Nancy/Robin
Each of these relationships will have its own dynamic, and just because they're all dating doesn't mean it will all be the same. This is why I often caution newer writers away from writing relationships with tons of characters off the bat. The jump from a triad to a quad moves you from 3 dyads to 6. Now, depending on your POV character, you may not have to focus much on every single dyad, but you do need to be aware of their existence.
3. Metamour Dynamics
A metamour is a person who your partner is dating and you are not dating. Metamour dynamics can be very complicated (but also very fun to play with when writing) because of the feelings that can come up seeing your partner with someone else.
Let's say both Steve and Robin are dating Nancy, but not each other. Are they thrilled to never have to be apart? Do they find it hilarious how much they share one brain? Or do they get sick of never having space away from each other? Does Robin resent that Steve's relationship with Nancy is more recognized by society because of heteronormativity? Does Steve resent that Robin's never had her heart broken by Nancy?
Metamours also may be awkward or choose not to interact. Let's say Nancy's dating both Barb and Eddie now. Do Barb and Eddie form an unlikely friendship? Are they consistently awkward and tense to a point where Nancy doesn't keep them near each other?
There are as many different metamour dynamics as there are people, and giving some life to these relationships will give a lot of texture and realism to your poly fic.
4. Let it be Messy
When we write monogamous pairings, most writers in a longer fic will include things not working out, miscommunication, hurt feelings, jealousy, anger, and angst. But there seems to be an anxiety around allowing any of these things to exist in polyamory, as if by admitting it's not always perfect, we're giving ammunition to polyphobia. (This same pressure is put on poly people in real life to be the Perfect Poly Partner and never experience difficult feelings around polyamory.)
The truth is, relationships are complicated. And while I love seeing poly pairings in fluff and smut, there seems at time to be real resistance to putting poly pairings into genres that are messier.
Mess is a part of life. Mess is especially a part of intimate, vulnerable relationships, and, on a personal note, I need the mess to exist in fiction because stories are how I understand myself. When poly people are allowed to be human, it helps me (and probably other poly people) give myself permission to be human too. You are not hurting the poly community if your characters mess up, especially if it's in real and human ways.
I hope this helps you feel more comfortable and confident writing poly characters! Feel free to shoot me an ask if you have any follow-up questions.
95 notes · View notes
itsbenedict · 1 year
Text
Zero has an edgy pokémon coma theory, and I kind of love it.
Tumblr media
Obviously this is contradicted by a bunch of things, and presumably isn't secret lore the devs decided to include. But in the spirit of demonstrating how easy it is to develop a plausible conspiracy theory with sufficiently hyperactive pattern-matching, here's some "evidence" we found:
Apart from Wishiwashi, which might be a separate phenomenon (where do the extras even come from when it does Schooling?), no pokémon which is actually multiple pokémon exceeds a squad of six members. Falinks tops out at six, and Exeggcute has six but one of their heads exploded.
Random trainers around the map tend to only have two or three pokémon in their team. Game balance reasons? No! Only career trainers like the Elite Four or breeders bond with the maximum safe number of pokémon at once!
Gary/Blue has seven distinct pokémon, but only swaps one out when it- judging by its disappearance in the fight in Lavender Tower- literally dies.
The protagonist of gen 1, Red, shows up in the next game... totally nonverbal, hanging out at the top of a mountain, unable to interact except to battle. He's lost his mind to bonding with too many pokémon! The price of power!
Things this theory explains:
Multi-pokemon like Magneton- what makes Magneton a single pokémon, and not two or four Magnemite? Magneton is the configuration of Magnemite that's capable of bonding with a trainer as a single pokémon.
This is the function of pokéballs- they're a prosthesis for the organ pokémon have but humans don't that allows them to form psychic mind-meld links with other pokémon. It's not mind-control or convenient loyalty- you're in each other's heads now. Escape from a pokéball is rejection of the psychic link.
The original four trade evolutions- Gengar, Alakazam, Machamp, Golem- all become more humanlike on evolving. This is a side effect of trading a psychic bond with one human for another one, giving them more humanity to sample.
Things this theory makes way more sinister:
Tumblr media
The pokédex quest is way spookier under this paradigm. The box system- if you can't catch more than six, why do boxes exist? Actually, it's weird that they exist at all, isn't it? Boxing the majority of your pokémon is a weird neglectful thing that the games just kind of pretend doesn't happen- trainers rarely if ever acknowledge its existence.
What if most trainers don't HAVE boxes? What if that's something you have, because the evil professor gave you a special pokédex that can access a private computer system belonging to a confederate? For example "Bill's PC" or "Lanette's PC", as opposed to "[playername]'s PC"? You don't normally keep pokémon in indefinite stasis in a computer system- this weird app just exists to allow you to complete the pokédex without your brain exploding!
Tumblr media
In Red/Blue/Yellow, Oak gives Blue a pokédex, sure, but he clearly makes no attempt to fill it out. And... really, why would he? He didn't give his grandson the special pokédex that cares about whether you've caught pokémon. He just gave him the normal one! The one that's already filled out! Because of course a filled pokédex already exists! It's yours that records new information only when you catch stuff.
Tumblr media
The implied endgame here is... the professor wants to create a pokémon-catcher capable of melding with a legendary pokémon, to interrogate it about the secrets of life.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
There are so many levels on which this doesn't even kinda work, but it's extremely fun to occasionally cut loose and take a swim in some cool refreshing Edge.
530 notes · View notes
communistkenobi · 1 year
Note
I get what you mean through that post about TWD but for the sake of someone who can't articulate why, what is political abt TWD?
do not take what I’m about to say as the only possible interpretation of the walking dead - or zombie apocalypse media more broadly, but twd acts as a handy representative for the genre in the popular north american consciousness I think, so I will be using it interchangeably. But I think there are a couple productive perspectives you can take with this kind of media.
fundamentally I think twd is horror aimed at the middle class. It presents a world where the state is no longer present, where your fear of other people cannot be soothed by calling the police (the protagonist of the show being a cop is notable here). the state in this imaginary is the sole barrier between civilisation and savagery. People turn on each other, loot, destroy property, and are generally untrustworthy. Zombies are an unthinking hoard of non-persons who only spread disease and death. The suburb is no longer safe. The ‘message’ or thesis of twd and shows like it is that human beings are only orderly and polite to one another so long as there is a state to enforce these social norms, and absent that, everyone will turn on each other (the “social contract”). Zombies in this case are less an expression of medical anxieties about a pandemic (although that’s not not a concern), but more so an expression of concerns about ‘mass immigration’ and a general racial intrusion into white suburban life. Zombies aren’t just a plague people deal with, but almost always cause the complete dissolution of American society. I don’t think you can decouple zombies in popular American consciousness from the racial anxieties of white people.
and more deeply than that I think american zombie media is a similar type of expression of what Cesaire calls the boomerang effect - what colonial powers do overseas they will eventually do to themselves. Now he was speaking of Europe’s turn to fascism (fascism in this instance being framed as a form of domestic colonialism), and twd is not necessarily presenting zombies as a punishment we bring on ourselves. America and Canada are also both settler colonial states, meaning that settlers permanently occupy the land they have invaded instead of returning home, so this is slightly different. But I think when people imagine zombie apocalypses, they are working through a scenario where their own civilisation is devastated by some invading force, where their stolen property and land are stolen back from them. They are working through an imagined boomerang effect, a fantasy where they are the blameless victims and their ill-gotten gains are taken from them unjustly. The history of settler colonial states is such a horrific, apocalyptic state of affairs that projecting that back onto oneself is a way of working through that history without ever reckoning with what that means. It is easier to fear colonialism happening to you than to extend sympathy to those who have been dispossessed by your ancestors, and in this configuration, you don’t have to confront your own way of life or the part you play in this history.
And it’s doing other stuff too. I think there’s a lot you can dig into with how masculinity is portrayed in these types of shows - men protecting their families by killing hoards of zombies, by being rewarded at every turn for distrusting other people and being generally anti-social. White men in particular have internalised ideas about masculinity that are bound up in violence and racial superiority, and zombie media provides a handy fantasy in which you’re forced to protect your wife and kids by killing as many people as humanly possible. In this framework, the zombie apocalypse is almost a welcome state of affairs, facilitating a return of traditional masculinity where men can freely express their violent desires, and their victims are mindless diseased non-persons who you are morally obligated to destroy. Zombie apocalypses provide a scenario where masculinity is valuable again. It might be instructive to consider zombie media as “inventing a guy to get mad at” so you have some place to put these ideas about masculine and racial domination. White middle class Americans are probably the safest group of people on planet earth, but because of that sustained safety you need to invent imagined scenarios where the violence of your identity as a white person or a man is still relevant, and so shoving that into a fantasy where you HAVE to kill people is alluring. Of course, whiteness and masculinity still produce a lot of violence in the world and these people are generally violent in both direct and indirect ways (calling the cops on black people, mass shootings, etc), but like it’s harder to consider yourself a conquering hero while dialling 911 you know. I think this is a wish fulfilment fantasy in its purest form, confirming all of their racial paranoias and providing them with a space where they are REQUIRED to kill shitloads of people.
There’s definitely more you can say but I’ll cut it off for now. And just to be clear I’m not saying enjoying twd or the last of us or anything else makes you a white suprematist or whatever, but zombies in popular consciousness are (at least partially) tapping into the anxieties present in white supremacist settler colonial states. I can’t speak to the entire genre, and I’m sure there are instances where zombie apocalypses are presented differently, but at least in this instance twd is generally reactionary and provides a safe space for people to work out their feelings about whiteness and masculinity while living in the imperial core
357 notes · View notes
melsie-sims · 11 months
Text
Melsie’s Sims 4 World Map
Many months ago (well before Growing Together came out) I teased a world map I was working on... but never actually ended up posting the finished product. I’ve FINALLY polished it, and even added where I thought San Sequoia might be located. 
I thought I’d share it with you guys and explain a bit how my map will end up influencing my gameplay.
Tumblr media
Here we have a full map view with all of the different continents. Every grid square is 20 miles (32km).
Under the cut there will be a grid-less option too, as well as a written list of all the worlds in each continent. Feel free to use either map for your own gameplay or if you want to incorporate it in your challenge rules! Just make sure to give me credit and maybe link my Simblr! Thanks in advance and happy simming!
I use Kuttoe’s Home Regions mod and have configured the settings so that NPC sims can only show up in worlds that are located within their specific continent. Clearly some worlds will be a lot more populated than others, but I think it’ll still be a very interesting way to play!  
For my current legacy challenge (Vega Legacy) my active sims will have no specific rule as to where they can travel, but I will try to keep the traveling to a minimum: once a day if they stay on the same continent, and once a week for worlds that are on different continents. 
I previously intended for sims to pay 100 simoleons per grid square traveled (200 simoleons if it’s an ocean square) and will probably still do that eventually... once my legacy founder has funds to spare. 
Tumblr media
I’m also providing a grid-less option for those of you that prefer a sleeker look and don’t care about the specific distance between places. 
Continent 1
Willow Creek
Newcrest
San Sequoia
Copperdale 
Granite Falls
Moonwood Mill
Magnolia Promenade
Brindleton Bay
Continent 2
Henford-on-Bagley
Britechester
Windenburg
Continent 3
Glimmerbrook
Forgotten Hollow
Continent 4
Selvadorada
Tartosa
Continent 5
Oasis Springs
Strangeville
Del Sol Valley
Continent 6
Sulani
Continent 7
Mt. Komorebi
San Myshuno
175 notes · View notes
archie-sunshine · 3 months
Text
So, What Now?(Rehabili/Cohabi-Tation)
Chapter 7: In Which Whirl Dares to be Stupid
Tumblr media
FIC TAGS: Eventual Whirl/Cyclonus/Tailgate, Cyclonus/Tailgate, polyamory, slowburn romance, mutual pining, slice of life, fluff, comedy, eventual smut(planned for later chapters), sappy mushy lovey stuff, polycue, May eventually have illustrations
The Lost Light has a brand new universe to explore! But everyone's still tired from the old one! In the interim between wacky hijinks, a solution is offered to those bored to death by peacetime- Why form a club about it or renovate your hab suite of course!
Whirl doesn't know how he feels about all the pep. And even worse, he doesn't know how to feel about Cyclonus and Tailgate wanting him to join in on their clean slate. 
Other Chapters Here! Read on AO3!
_________________________
Author's Notes: OKAY IM SORRY I TOOK SO LONG TO POST THIS!! I've been really fuckin strugglin at school and i figured people didn't love this fic as much as I did- BUT I POST FOR ME!! NOT YOU!! FUCK YOURSELF!! Im kidding actually don't do that
CHAPTER TAGS: VIOLENCE, miscommunication, angst, references to suicidal tendencies, self sacrifice, action, whirl fucks it up.
The planet below was visible through the observation windows, vast and painted in shades of grey and brown. It was almost familiar, in the way that every junk world looks like every other junk world. He supposed even in a new dimension, junk looked like junk. 
Ultra Magnus cleared his vocalizer, reading from his datapad to the gathered bots. “Alright, so again, to go over our itinerary, we will be looking for any salvageable replacement parts to stock the medibay, any supply of energon possible for the replicators, any usable scrap or base materials for patching the ship-”
Annnd Whirl had zoned out again. He was already vibrating with anticipation watching the shuttle breaching the atmosphere and coming down onto the surface. He kept bouncing from pede to pede, optic trained on the outside with his claws pressed against the reinforced glass of the window. The end of his helm was practically mashed against the glass, optic flicking around at the outside world. 
Slowly, the shuttle came to a halt, adjusting to the gravity of the world and whirring as it’s landing gear shifted to stay in the right configuration. Whirl sped towards the still folded up exit dock, stifling as many of his excitable noises as he could as the dock slowly began to open and extend. From his point of view the movements were glacial, an eternity of wasted time as he metaphorically pinged off the walls in anticipation. 
“Try not to look too bored, Whirl.” Cyclonus quipped, temporarily grabbing the ex-wrecker’s attention as he shifted a hoverpalette into place beside him. Tailgate was perched atop it for the time being. 
“Isn’t this great? A change from the routine, back to normal, breath of old fresh air.” Whirl babbled as the dock sunk into place, kicking up a cloud of dust. 
“I can’t believe I had to bail on a meeting of the astrophysics appreciation society for THIS.” Brainstorm grumbled. 
“I need eyes in the air, Brainstorm, tough break.” Rodimus shrugged, trotting down the dock before rolling into his altmode and speeding off. 
“YOU PHILISTINE!!” Brainstorm shouted after him before leisurely making his way down the dock on foot.
Whirl bolted out of the ship, leaping into his transformation and catching himself just above the ground. “HURRY UP!” He shouted back, spinning in the air as Cyclonus carefully attached the hoverpalette to Tailgate’s altmode. 
“I’m coming, I’m coming!!!” Tailgate complained, tires spinning up dust for a moment before squealing down an alleyway between mountains of junk. Cyclonus winced as his conjunx bounced the hoverpalette attached to his back fender against a condemned concrete slab. 
Whirl waited just long enough for Cyclonus to begin transforming as well before he soared after Tailgate, scouring the hills and valleys of trash for any of the items on Magnus’s list. 
“Y’know, do you ever worry Brainstorm popped us out in a universe without energon?” Tailgate mused through the open comms channel. 
“I would NEVER do that, it pains me to think you see so lowly of me.” Brainstorm snapped back. 
“So this universe WILL have energon right?” Rodimus asked.
“OF COURSE IT WILL!! All the energon in the ship would have turned into antimatter and started disappearing if it didn’t.” Brainstorm huffed. 
“Well suppose it does have energon, what about if it's a universe with no cybertronians? Then we’ll never find any parts!” Whirl added.
“Why are you all acting like I didn't figure out TIME TRAVEL and INTERDIMENSIONAL TRAVEL?? I think of these things!!” Brainstorm balked. 
“No, usually Perceptor thinks of these things.” Cyclonus jabbed. 
“I hate you.” Brainstorm sneered. “I hate all of you.” 
“So if there are cybertronians, shouldn’t we worry about running into ourselves?” First Aid piped up. “Also, Magnus, I found a crate of salvageable fuel actuators, I’ll drop you my coordinates.” 
“On my way.” Magnus pinged back. 
“Well I suppose that is a good question…” Brainstorm mused. “From what we checked for, we’re in a universe with no lost light, but beyond that there should still be a cybertron out there somewhere.” 
“Then do we just- still exist on cybertron over there?” Tailgate asked. “Oh- Found some half empty cubes to siphon!” 
Whirl brought his frame down close to where Tailgate was standing, carefully coming to a halt a few meters back before walking over to begin gathering the energon cubes onto the hoverpalette. 
“I have reason to believe we do, though anything from there is entirely up to theory. It’s possible cybertron is still at war in this universe.” Brainstorm murmured. 
There was a long silence. 
“We’ll just give Cybertron a wide berth then.” Rodimus said. “And anyway, I need you to do less theorizing and more scavenging, ‘storm.” 
“Oh- Yeeeees Captain.” Brainstorm grumbled, sarcasm palpable. “Forgive me for trying to stretch my processor around such a succulent concept instead of peering around for more scra- OH what in the world-!” 
“What? What is it?” Rodimus asked, suddenly hesitant. 
“There’s a very angry- uhm- I hesitate to call it a junktacon, considering the circumstances but if the helmet fits-” Brainstorm’s voice had sped up despite it’s calm overtone, indicating his panic, “Its shooting at me with some very old laser rifle, not a threat now, but where there’s one there will likely be many!” 
“I’m on my way, keep evasive maneuvers, ‘storm!” Rodimus barked, before promptly dropping off the comms line with Brainstorm. 
There was a beat of silence. 
“So uh… Should we be helping?” Whirl asked the air, strapping the energon cubes tightly to the palette. 
“Wait for the captain’s orders, Whirl, I’m sure Brainstorm and Rodimus are well equipped.” Ultra Magnus said. “Continue searching for items on our list and make yourselves prepared should any wayward hostiles appear.” 
“I believe I’ve found something.” Cyclonus interjected. 
Whirl and Tailgate quickly shifted their attention back to the real world, making their way over to the top of an adjacent junk mound where Cyclonus was crouched. 
“What is it?” Tailgate asked, shifting out of his altmode. Whirl stifled a laugh at the hoverpalette’s strap placement- wrapped tight around his hips like a belt. 
Cyclonus pointed at a large busted open shipping container. The container was lined with crates, one of them knocked over and spilling a supply of discarded parts- cables, replacement plating, an arm or two. Some of them were a bit corroded, but plenty were salvageable. 
Tailgate trotted forward and swung the palette around into position for Cyclonus to begin loading the useful parts onto it. Whirl kept his distance, swinging his helm around to keep watch for any approaching threats. 
“Try to remain quiet.” Cyclonus whispered, just loud enough for Whirl to hear. Whirl rolled his optic. He had already begun to reroute power to his front mounted chain gun, hopping from pede to pede. Every piston and spring was coiled tight, prepared for battle. 
He dimly heard the sound of Cyclonus tightening the straps over the new cargo on the hoverpalette, and then very clearly heard the sound of laserfire going long over his head.
Within a fraction of a second, Whirl had swung around, back to his altmode in a moment and already firing wildly in the direction of the gunfire. He saw the beams of his own turret kicking up dust and scrap, nearly obscuring the skittering form of a junktacon rushing for cover. He could hear the unfamiliar whirs and bleeps of it’s language. Not a good sign, that usually meant it was calling for more of it’s little friends.
Whirl winced as a lance of energy shot through the plating of his back. He whipped around in time to see Tailgate returning the favour to the leader of a forming crowd of bots. He almost felt bad for the thing as Tailgate’s fist crumpled the plating of his helmet and sent him spinning aft over helm into a pile of tires. 
“This is Cyclonus, we are under fire, Rodimus!” Whirl could hear the sound of the comms link opening again in his processor, but he had better things to think about. 
He rushed forwards, delighting in the familiar ‘brakabrakabraka’ of his guns mowing down lines of chump enemies like target practice bottles. In addition, it made the energon go hot in his fuel lines to see Tailgate sending foes flying with his fists alone. 
Whirl was in his element. He could barely feel the potshots that these mooks managed to ping off his plating, even as loose energon dribbled from his frame. A bloodthirsty cackle escaped his vocalizer as he whizzed down into the crowd, feeling bodies smash into and flip over his windshield. 
“TAILGATE! THE CARGO!” Cyclonus roared, leaping between his sparkmate and a larger combatant, raising his sword aloft to slice through it’s elbow joint like it was made of paper. 
Tailgate seemed to get it, making a noise of recognition before clumsily shifting into his alt mode and beginning to drive off down the side of the mound with the hoverpalette in tow.
“Oh BOO! YOU’RE NO FUN!” Whirl called after them, continuing to delight in the bloodshed. He heard the leader pry his way out of the scrapheap, shouting something Whirl failed to understand or care about. 
He felt like the sensation of getting punched backwards into a garbage pile by a giant fist was a good explanation for what that was about. Whirl, knocked out of his altmode, shook his helm and scrambled back to his pedes.
Oh. Huh. 
“I didn’t know they had one of those.” He muttered, mid transformation back into the fight. 
A gigantic mech, miles smaller than a titan but still imposingly huge, dragged itself up out of the scrap and onto it’s massive pedes. 
“FALL BACK, WHIRL!” Cyclonus’s voice sent his audials ringing. 
Whirl soared back into the air, warming up for another charge from the opposition, only to feel his spark sink as the mooks began to rush down the valley between the scrap mounds after Tailgate and Cyclonus. The colossus followed after them, slow and lumbering but covering equal ground. 
For a chilling moment, Whirl felt fear creep in. 
Then he was flying again, fast as he could, his frame jittering with adrenaline. He swooped low to the ground, catching up with Tailgate and leaning down. 
“YOU’VE GOT A TAIL!” He shrieked.
“I’M AWARE!” Tailgate snapped back, his tiny frame bouncing and nearly flipping over a jutting piece of garbage. 
“I can get us to the ship faster.” Cyclonus barked, lowering his alt mode down to tailgate’s level. “Whirl, can you distract them?”
“YOU GOT IT!” Whirl shouted back, peeling off with a renewed spark of glee in him. He wheeled around to face the colossus and rocketed straight for the face. He was barely more than a fly in it’s face, buzzing about  around its head trying to convince it to swat. It seemed to be working, the massive bot tossing its helm to and fro, arm coming up to bat the helicopter away. 
It didn’t last long however, as that damnable platoon leader shouted out yet another order to the colossus. It’s optics blared brighter for a moment, raising a servo directly over where Cyclonus was about to take off with Tailgate in tow. 
Whirl saw red. A guttural ‘NO!’ ripped from his vocalizer, as he, without thinking, rocketed towards the offending servo. His chaingun barely dented the metal. By the time he realized that he’d already made his decision. That hand was coming off whether he went with it or not. He braced for impact, barely online long enough to catch the first blinding sting of pain as he made contact. 
He could hear nothing but the explosion he had caused, and then he could hear nothing at all. 
*
Whirl could barely recall anything after the crash. 
And yet, burned into his memory were these terrible, awful flashes, the look of absolute despair on Tailgate’s face as he recovered him from the wreckage, a focused, frantic set to Cyclonus’s expression as he carried his frame in his arms, the sounds of mechs shouting over him as they strapped him to a stretcher.
When Whirl finally came to, it was, unsurprisingly, in medbay. He let out a staticky grunt, moving to sit up. On quick examination of his frame, he noted that one of his arms had been reconstructed, as had his chest, half of his left leg, and the entire right leg. He flopped back onto the slab, letting his optic go offline. 
“Whirl!” 
Whirl glanced up, flicking his optic back on and feeling a wash of relief as he finally noticed Tailgate was sitting by his berthside. He noted Cyclonus’s presence as well, more standoffish, with his arms folded in the corner. 
“Hey, TG…” Whirl mumbled warmly. Tailgate plastered himself across the larger mech’s front, squeezing him as gently as he could. Whirl swallowed a wince, the dizzying pain in his frame making his tanks churn.
“I’m so glad you’re ok…” He whimpered muffledly. 
“‘Course I am, I’m always ok..!” Whirl cackled raspily. “Did we get everything we-”
“THAT WAS SO STUPID!” Tailgate suddenly snapped, pulling back. Whirl could see him resist the urge to punch him, slipping off the berth and pacing fitfully as he squeezed his servos into fists. “You could’ve-! And- If we hadn’t- and we were- WE WERE SO SCARED!” 
Whirl’s spark ached. “... It was gonna squash you-”
“We were perfectly capable of escaping, and you KNOW that, Whirl.” Cyclonus said suddenly, voice quivering with anger. “You’ve always been reckless but- this??? For some cargo and junk?! This is a new low! You’re better than this- I KNOW you’re better than this-!” 
“IT WASN’T ABOUT THE CARGO!” Whirl roared back, sitting up quickly. He bit back a wince. “... It wasn’t about the cargo.” 
The quiet that followed was painful. He turned his helm away from them, unable to bear the feeling of their accusatory looks. 
“I’m fine. You didn’t need to come babysit me like I’m some sparkling… Just leave.” Whirl muttered. 
“...Whirl, I-” Cyclonus started brokenly. 
“Just go! Stop fragging worrying about me all the time, it’s getting old!” Whirl snapped. “I’m sorry your little pity project isn’t turning out all rainbows and sunshine for you, but I’m a PERSON too, not some stupid hobby for your free time!” Whirl felt sick, his tanks roiling. What was he saying- did he mean it? Really? He clenched his claws together. The couple’s gazes were burning into his plating, he could feel the pain and hurt in their fields.
 “... I didn’t-” He croaked out.
“No- It’s fine Whirl. We’ll leave you alone.” Cyclonus said, tone flat and even. 
“But-” Tailgate started. Whirl felt a pull in his chassis at the hurt in the little bot’s voice. 
“Come on, Tailgate. He wants to be alone.” Cyclonus urged. 
Whirl heard them leave, dimly noting the sound of the door pulling shut. He slowly laid back, flat on the berth, staring up at the ceiling of the medbay. Guilt boiled in his tanks, processor spinning with regret. Did he mean it when he said that he didn’t need them worrying, did he mean it when he said he wanted them to leave? He wanted to mean it. 
He wanted to mean it so it wouldn’t hurt that they left. 
Whirl ached in their absence. 
“This is stupid..” He mumbled to himself. He hoped if he thought hard enough about how stupid he was for feeling like this, eventually his processor would give in to peer pressure and let him forget he felt anything at all. 
Whirl offlined his optic and tried to rest.
42 notes · View notes
bomberqueen17 · 3 months
Text
switchplate covers update/tutorial
So the thing to keep in mind with this is that we gotta see how well the wear. A switchplate cover is a pretty high-traffic thing, and subject to a lot of wear. If these get too dingy I'm absolutely going to have to go buy fancy ceramic ones or something.
But. That said. Here is my final result, and below the cut is how I did this, partly because I want to remember how it worked LOL.
Tumblr media
[Image description: A combo lightswitch/outlet with a black three-prong plug plugged into it, set into a white subway tile wall with a wooden breadboard leaned against it. The plate cover is painted with a mottled effect to look like a turquoise gemstone, complete with inset glitter to mimic the pyrite inclusions found in some raw turquoise.]
A better view of the glitter:
Tumblr media
[Image description: Another turquoise-painted outlet faceplate on the background of a rumpled white dropcloth, my fingers visible tilting it toward the light so the flake glitter catches the light from the window.]
So I searched up for tutorials and found a few, each of which was like "can't believe nobody else has done this"; I'm sharing the most helpful one here. What was thee very most helpful thing, though, was the writer's pointing out that many different configurations of turquoise exist, so you can just pick a reference image and build off that. I did not in the end come very close to my reference, but decided instead to make it look sick as hell. LOL. I was just having too much fun doing whatever I wanted. So these are not super realistic! But then you wouldn't... make an outlet faceplate out of real turquoise, so I felt like I wasn't fooling anyone. Anyway--
How To Paint Faux Turquoise.
So the first thing I did was find some very fine-grit sandpaper (I think I got 320? I found a mostly used-up sheet of it in the basement and just used the unused edge from where it had been fastened around a block, LOL) and went over the whole front surface of each plate I was going to paint, and then I washed them with dishsoap and hot water and dried them with a dish towel, because I figured finger grease, hand dirt, and sanding dust would keep the paint from sticking. I started with white plastic ones, the kind you get for up to a dollar at the hardware store.
Then I got a plastic container lid, put dollops of various of my paint samples in it, dug out the craft paints I got cleaning out Auntie's basement and the sole tube of acrylics (Mars black) I could still find from the last time I did any painting, and went to town. The first couple, I did the pale shades and let them dry and came back to add the darker marbling. But then I was like, these are latex/acrylic, you don't have to build them in layers? So I just did the rest of them with all the shading in more or less one pass.
Acrylic art paint and latex housepaint are both water-based, so there's no conflict with using them intermingled. I've combined them before, I used to do a lot of sign painting and it works fine. Housepaint's runnier, idk. Don't mix oils and latex, is the thing to keep in mind; they just don't stick to each other real well.
I went to the art supply store to get some water-based varnish, because all i had was polyurethane and that's oil-based. It'd probably work as a topcoat but I was worried and the internet's advice conflicted. I wanted to go get better glitter anyway, so I did. I happen to live near Hyatt's All Things Creative, so I take every excuse I can get to go there.
I bought some sick-ass glitter (over in the resin pouring section, hell yes), and puzzled thru the various offerings. (@sassaffrassa's advice proved invaluable on this thank u.) I got just-- "Gloss varnish acrylic medium", the Hyatt's brand, for four dollars and sixty-nine (nice) cents, and then because I was feeling spendy, I also bought Krylon spray-on glossy varnish. Belt and suspenders, y'know? Also to make the brush strokes less obvious.
The critical thing, though, about the gloss varnish, is that it says right on the bottle that you can either incorporate it into the paint as a medium to enhance the sheen, OR brush it over the finished work as a protective coating. Dries absolutely clear. So I knew, THIS is how I'm attaching the glitter. I'd been thinking like, mod podge? elmer's glue? mix it into the paint? No.
Tumblr media
[image description: the gloss varnish bottle. It is this product. The relevant text says "can be used either as a medium to enhance the sheen levels of acrylic paint or as an over-varnish on finished artwork to provide a non-tacky, protective gloss coating".]
So I carefully got open the little bottle of glitter (no sneezing! it was "white gold flake" style and cost eight bucks for like half a gram. to my knowledge it's not actually made of gold but it was priced like it was) and painted little fine patches of gloss varnish onto the spots I wanted glittered, and then used tweezers to apply glitter just in those spots, and mooshed them around with the little varnish-covered brush until they stuck where I wanted them. (I put them on the darkest bits of the veining, because that was what my source image looked like, mostly. I wanted to be really liberal but then I thought, no, a little pop of glitter is more exciting actually. Still not sure, but it does look good so. They say measure that shit with your heart but I went light because I figured I could add more later, and then I didn't.)
Then I came back at the end and painted more gloss varnish just over the glitter, just to make sure it was all really stuck down and wouldn't flake off with wear.
Let that dry for a couple hours, then used a larger brush to spread gloss varnish as evenly as possible over the entirety of each plate. It did leave visible brush strokes, which I didn't mind. The art shop guy suggested using a really soft brush to minimize that, and I was like "yah sure ok" but then, well, I didn't, I just used the brush I had.)
But then I let that dry overnight, and in the morning I put the plates all in my giant overspray cardboard box, and gave them each a liberal coating of the spray varnish. (Yes of course I have a giant cardboard box I keep in my basement to spray paint things in. I know it says use in a well-ventilated space but what I do, see, is I do that and then I leave the room, which is almost as good. LOL it's 24F and snowing I'm not doing it outside.)
That bottle says two hours until handling on it, so I left it two hours, and then I put up the plates that were in spots where the painting was done or wasn't happening, hence my example image being against a tiled wall.
The screwdriver immediately scratched the first one a little bit, but not super obviously. But I kind of would expect a screwdriver to scratch just about anything, so that doesn't mean much.
I won't guarantee how well these'll hold up but if you were interested in doing something like that, there's how it worked. (Hi, future me, you're welcome for writing it down lol.)
I'm sort of sorry for no more process pictures but honestly most of it was following whimsy and doing what I felt like and kind of drawing on what I hadn't realized was a lot lot lot of hours of past paint-handling in my life, so pictures wouldn't help anyone else recreate this. But it did remind me that I love to paint and should do that more. So, I'll try, I guess.
40 notes · View notes
severalowls · 1 year
Text
Got my latest Morrowind mod finished up!
Items in tombs will be identifiable as grave goods by most merchants, provided they're obvious/valuable enough. Some dried leaves or an old dagger? Unlikely to result in a second glance. Some nice gloves? Maybe if somebody gets a good look. Grandma's prize battleaxe? You monster!
Detailed trust system for how people react to your misdeeds. A total stranger shows up with something which might be stolen? And they're an outlander? Report them immediately! But the head of your guild just showed up, you're buddies, I think we can let that slide. They probably have a legitimate reason to be pawning your great uncle's belongings anyway, they do work for the temple after all.
Configurable elements. Adjustable value thresholds for what is considered identifiable as grave goods, what is obviously grave goods to the naked eye, and the criminal penalty associated with graverobbing. The additional taboo for attempting to sell bones taken from a tomb can also be disabled, as well as a reminder when entering a sacred tomb.
A wide variety of dialogue additions, including integration with NPCs during certain vanilla quests related to ancestral tombs. Surrender your grave goods to a guard for a reduced fine if you like, just note that some may react more strongly than others!
The immediate impact is relatively low, but it's one of those things you can leave on in the background and feel lightly immersed knowing that somebody out there might actually hate you for stealing grandma's good china.
This is a MWSE mod so it isn't compatible with OpenMW, but if you're doing a meaningfully modded, non-MP run then I really highly recommend not using OpenMW until there's lua script parity, MWSE is capable of too many cool things to turn down. Wink wink.
Spurred by a suggestion post by @profanetools about 3 weeks ago, followed by a few days of initial fiddling, a couple of weeks of "Oh, when will the fey mood kick in and make me work on this really hard" followed by a week of... The fey mood kicking in.
(Done as part of the Morrowind May Modathon, in which mods are mostly made in May)
OH ONE THING:
I didn't have time to do like, hours of play with this installed. If it does weird shit you don't expect it to, please let me know! I fully expect there be some tombs where you DON'T want things to be tagged, or where some SPECIFIC things should be left untagged. Please report them! Either on the nexus comments page or message me on here.
147 notes · View notes
smaller-comfort · 3 days
Note
So how do you imagine snail love darts and necrontyr working/combining? Cause I am interested~
Aksjdhsk ahahaha oh god okay here we go
(Tumblr crashed on me three times while I tried to write this, but I will not let that stop me from rambling at length about snail sex, speculative xenobiology, and various ways that necrontyr get to be fucked up little guys.)
Okay, now snails: they use the darts during courtship to deliver hormones that increase the likelihood of fertilizing their partner's eggs; after the several-hours-long mating dance, they'll exchange spermatophores. (Fun fact, the penis, copulatory canal, and dart sac are all located inside the genital pore, on the snail's head. Mating dances can involve a lot of biting.) Snails have bad aim, but it's not uncommon for both snails to end up getting stabbed during courtship.
Okay. Some assumptions/general thoughts: necrontyr do not have "dual-use" reproductive/waste elimination systems (inferred from Trazyn's hilarious disgust at the idea, but honestly it would be entirely believable for him to have completely lost any and all memories of necrontyr biology). Most higher order animals do (they're efficient!), but you start to see ones that don't when you get down to bugs and marine creatures, so that's what kicked off this train of thought.
I'm assuming also there is relatively little sexual dimorphism among necrontyr (not for any particular reason, although my understanding is that actual female necrons are a relatively new thing in wh40k lore, so that fits). And finally, everyone constantly dying of turbo cancer has led to a 'throw everything but the kitchen sink at it' evolutionary approach to reproductive strategies.
"Copulatory canal" is a deeply unsexy phrase, btw. So are most words we use when talking about sex, unfortunately. *sigh*
Okay, so, love darts. Pretty much only ever used by nobles/the military, because in the upper classes of society, sex isn't about reproduction, it's about reinforcing social hierarchies. And necrontyr social hierarchies tend to be inherently about violence in one way or another. Sexual dominance is generally more about who gets stabbed with the dart than it is about which penis is going where. (That's still a factor, but it's secondary, since genital configurations/functionality can be a bit of a wildcard.) Snails take an egalitarian approach to sex; necrontyr categorically do not. Both parties consenting to be darted would be considered weird and perverted.
Anyway. While many necrontyr do only have one set of functional reproductive organs by the time they reach adulthood (either because the other set was always vestigial or because it gets removed to reduce the spread of cancer), both sets are usually present in some fashion. Sterility would be fairly common, but medical technology is able to mitigate some of that; the lower classes, at least, need to be able to breed like rabbits to feed the war machine. Gender is mostly divorced from reproductive role by the time biotransference happens; in addition to male and female, there would have been at least one other normative gender, possibly two (to account for both null and multimodal genders). Gender fluidity would have been common and largely unremarkable for necrontyr. (It's still largely unremarkable for necrons, but it's not particularly common; they're mostly fixed with whatever gender they had at biotransference.)
The dart sac would be located in their mouths, under the tongue; it's meant to be ejected into the soft tissue of the mouth, but it's sharp enough to pierce the skin anywhere. (This does mean kissing can be Complicated, or at least somewhat subversive, depending on everyone's social standing.) Normally it gets broken down and absorbed by the recipient's body; pulling one out tends to be extremely uncomfortable/painful.
Kind of going off ancient greek/roman sexual mores here; it would be entirely unthinkable, for example, for Obyron to be the penetrative partner in either sense with Zahndrekh. (Then again, Zahndrekh is a shameless pervert.) Sex between two social equals is generally accompanied by an agreement- sometimes tacit, sometimes explicit- about not using the darts. Doing so would be an overt act of aggression. Often, to prevent any potential misunderstandings, they'll voluntarily empty their dart sacs ahead of time.
Forcing someone to empty their dart sac prior to sex is a pretty common form of sexual humiliation. When done voluntarily, it's a sign of submission or respect. (Darts usually have a refractory period of a few days, depending on the person's overall health. Single-chambered dart sacs are typical, but multiples aren't unheard of. Leads to occasional 'surprise! You thought I was submitting to you but now you're getting fucked instead' situations.)
The exact cocktail of hormones and neurochemicals it injects the other person with would vary somewhat between individuals, but can potentially vary widely between dynasties or social classes due to genetic/geographic/cultural differences. Some might include a mild paralytic agent; some sort of euphoric effect is also common. (This is all in addition to the original function, which, uh. Is to make the recipient more likely to get pregnant.) The shape of the dart varies in a similar fashion, ranging from a straight, smooth bone spike to something more elaborate with barbs or fluting.
(A bloody mouth can signify a lot of things to necrontyr- in addition to violence or illness, it's also inherently erotic. Necrons who remember this try very, very hard not to think about it when confronted with Flayed Ones.)
(Yenekh: *very sexily smearing his mouth with blood and draping himself all over Oltyx*
Crypteks have their own social hierarchies within their conclaves, but they're usually not as concerned with sexual politics as nobles and the military tend to be. Most people believe that crypteks all lace their love darts with poison, and the crypteks don't try to discourage that assumption. Some of them probably do, tbh.
Oltyx: *oblivious, can't stop thinking about how pretty Yenekh is*
The rest of the flayed ones: *still not sure why their king and his consort haven't fucked nasty in a pile of carrion yet. Maybe they need a bigger pile of carrion? Yes, that's probably it. They will take care of this for their beloved king.*)
Necrons, of course, don't have genitalia, but they can still stab each other with love dart analogues- this ranges from things like executive buffer override packages sent via interstitial channel, to actually physically jamming a spike of necrodermis into a neural input node. (From a purely aesthetic/romantic standpoint I also like the idea of love darts constructed out of crystallized core flux. The first time Zahndrekh does that to Obyron he goes into complete cascade failure and takes several hours to reboot.)
If Orikan and Trazyn did have sex pre-biotransference, one of them would have darted the other without permission (probably accidentally, being that they are both intensely nerdy losers and thus Bad At Sex by necrontyr standards), setting off a sixty-five million year hate-sex feud that neither of them can even remember the origin of. Orikan would've gone after Trazyn's mouth with a pair of pliers at some point; joke's on him, Trazyn's into that.
(Trazyn does have a collection of necrontyr love darts in the archives- all of them ones he collected personally when he was alive. He has no absolutely no memory of slutting it up back in the day, though, and probably doesn't even realize what they are. Sannet, unfortunately, does remember, and wishes he didn't. He has had to put up with so, so much over the years.)
31 notes · View notes
waltwhitmansbeard · 7 months
Note
Sitting in the other one’s lap when they have no where else to sit(during appropriate times 👀) with Vaxleth, please?
Sitting in the other one’s lap when they have no where else to sit(during appropriate times 👀) going a lil off-script with this one and setting it in vamp machina, pre-kidnapping
Keyleth asks every night for three weeks straight until Vax finally relents. He doesn't know why she's so set on this, easily the dumbest idea she's ever had, but when she makes her eyes all big and shiny like that, what's he supposed to do, let her down?
So he takes her to a vampire bar.
It's the sleazy dive near the docks, the kind of place that the kind of girl like Keyleth would never accidentally stumble into. When he picks her up from her apartment, she's dressed in what he's sure she thinks is something incognito—skinny black jeans, one of his t-shirts, a baggy gray flannel, boots that have seen better days. And it's true, she looks the part—she looks fucking incredible, if he's being honest—but it's not going to change the fact that she smells undeniably human.
They take a taxi, and on the entire drive, Vax goes over the rules three more times, low so the cabbie doesn't hear. "Never more than two feet away from me, don't take any drink offered to you, keep Pike's holy symbol around your neck at all times—"
"—conjure sunlight if things get hairy, yes, I know." She rolls her eyes at him, but Vax can tell she's excited. "I promise, I'll be on my best behavior."
"Yeah, well, it's not you I'm worried about."
The cab pulls up outside the bar, which looks identical to every other brick-faced building around it, cracked sidewalks and all, and Vax gets out first, putting himself between her and the door. As he helps her out, he murmurs, "We can leave now. The night's still young, we can probably catch that movie you were telling me about."
She ignores him, brushing past him to head for the door. He scrambles to catch up to her. When they enter, it's exactly as he remembers: low lights, throbbing music, vampires and their rented donors lounging on all configurations of couches and tables. The whole place smells of copper and cigarette smoke, and instantly Vax is starving.
He keeps a hand firm around Keyleth's waist. Her presence does not go unnoticed; at least half a dozen of the closest vampires swing their eyes up and down her body, one obviously comparing her to the scantily-dressed woman his teeth in whose neck his teeth are currently buried.
Vax hates this place.
"C'mon." He starts to urge her toward a table farther away from the main bar area, but Keyleth resists. "What about a drink?" she asks, gesturing toward the bartender.
"You offering?"
Vax yanks Keyleth away from the burly, seedy vamp suddenly leering over her. "Fuck off," he hisses, letting his fangs finish the rest of the threat. He's not surprised when the other vamp slinks off; this place sucks, but at least it's generally understood that you don't eat off of anyone else's plate without permission.
There's a table free in the corner, which makes Vax antsy, but at least it's empty. As he shepherds a too-curious Keyleth towards it, he's stopped by an annoyingly familiar drawl. "Never thought I'd catch you here, brother."
Vax freezes. Keyleth stumbles, then turns to see what made him stop. "Are you...oh, wow." Her head swivels between Vax and his sister, who is seated at a booth along the wall across from two other vamps whose names Vax can't remember but whose faces he recognizes from the many, many nights he spent bouncing between haunts like this one. "You two look...I mean, you must be Vex!"
Keyleth is beaming, like this is always how she imagined meeting her boyfriend's twin sister. Vex is draped along the back edge of the booth, looking as casually sinister as ever, her eyes surveying Keyleth in a way that Vax knows means scrutiny, not hunger. "And you must be the witch." Her eyes swivel over to Vax. "You brought her here? And here I was thinking you stopped being fun when you started eating at home all the time."
Keyleth's cheeks tinge pink, and the other vamps—Vax is going to remember their names any second, he's sure of it—start to salivate at the smell of her blood pooling so close to the surface. Keeping his voice low, Vax murmurs, "Play nice, Vex'ahlia."
Vex throws her hands up in surrender. "I'm always nice, brother." She smiles sweetly at Keyleth. "Would you care to join us, darling?"
Before Vax can protest, Keyleth chirps, "Of course!" She eyes the seats beside Vex, which will definitely not fit the both of them. Undeterred, Keyleth grabs Vax by the arm and shoves him unceremoniously beside his sister. He's just managed to right himself when she perches on his lap, swinging her legs beneath the table. "There!"
Everyone stares at her, Vax easily the most dumbfounded. She's never been like this. Keyleth tends to be shyer than most, preferring to keep her affections behind closed doors, which is more than fine with Vax—so sitting on his lap and playing with the fine hairs at the nape of his neck in a den of vampires and iniquity is about as far from the Keyleth he knows as she can get.
Vex, on the other hand, seems bemused. "You are a wild thing, aren't you?" She leans in, teeth glittering in the light of the candle in the middle of the table. "I can see why my brother likes you."
"And I can see why he speaks so highly of you. You're so confident. I admire that."
"Aren't you sweet?" Vex whacks Vax's shoulder. "You should be sweet like her."
"Oh, he's plenty sweet." Her fingers have abandoned his hair and are now playing with the sensitive tip of his ear, and even in the tense atmosphere of this bar, it is...doing something to him. "He's a real gentleman, walks me home from work, brushes my hair out before bed, always stops drinking before I get dizzy—"
Vax chokes. "Keyleth—"
The woman across from Vex—Jenna? Jemma? It's driving him crazy—smirks. "Quite the pair you two make. I don't suppose you ever share..."
"Oh, I don't share." Keyleth lifts the hand that isn't torturously teasing his ear, and Vax's eyes blown wide when small sparks of sunlight dance between her fingers.
The vampire couple shies away with a hiss, and then the man grumbles, "We should go." The two slip easily out of the booth and disappear among the crowd.
Just like that, Keyleth slumps against Vax's chest, barely giving him enough time to catch her before she slides off his lap. "That was a lot."
"I'll fucking say. I've never seen you act like that before."
She smiles sheepishly. "Did you see her face when you walked up? She wanted to eat you up." She shrugs. "I had to...educate her."
Oh, if they weren't in the most dangerous place in the city right now. Vax's jaw hangs low, but Vex's head tips back as she cackles. "Oh...oh I like you. Feisty little witch you've found yourself, Vax. I rather think this vine's got thorns."
Keyleth preens. Vax presses his lips to the crook of her neck. "And what lovely thorns they are."
62 notes · View notes
timeofjuly · 4 days
Text
Soulmates in Wishbone, or how I think the soulmate trope would shape the culture of a Swapfell Underground.
Disclaimer: worldbuilding is not one of my strengths lol, so take this more as rambly what-if speculation than anything concrete. If I end up contradicting any of this in the fic, shhh no I didn't.
@blurry-palmetto wanted to hear more about soulmates in my swapfell soulmate au fic Wishbone, so instead of replying to their comment like a normal person, here’s a whole long ass post below the cut!
Here’s a recap of what we know about how soulmates work in the fic:
The soulmate bond is solidified by physical touch.
Soulmates share HP, LV, and EXP.
Soulmates can share physical sensation.
Soulmates can access each other’s thoughts, feelings, and Intent.
They can share their own of all of the above with their soulmate.
They can also prevent their soulmate from accessing these things.
Both of the above are learned skills that require effort to execute. Without knowing how to be intentional with the bond, you just kinda end up transmitting everything to your soulmate all day long.
Soulmates are unable to FIGHT each other.
The death of one soulmate results in the death of the other(s).
Extended time away from your soulmate(s) results in soulmate sickness. For Papyrus, this manifested as feelings of itchiness, restlessness, insomnia, palpable anxiety. Increased physical distance between him and the reader worsened these symptoms.
Soulmates are a strictly monster thing: all monsters have a soulmate, and those soulmates can be other monsters, or they can be humans. There are no human/human soulmate bonds. Two humans can be soulmates with the same monster, though.
Any number of people can be soulmates in many different configurations. In Wishbone, the reader is in a wishbone, V-shaped bond with Sans and Papyrus, where they’re the middle bit and the brothers branch off from them.
Before the events of the first chapter of Wishbone, there were no mage/monster soulmate bonds.
Nobody has ever survived an attempt to break a soulmate bond.
For Wishbone, it was important to have two differing cultural views on soulmates because I wanted there to be a huge disparity between how Sans and Papyrus approach the bond compared to the reader. This choice was made for a few reasons, but mostly for maximum angst potential lmao (the driving force behind most Wishbone related decisions). I wanted the soulmate phenomenon to be deeply respected and revered by the monsters, a cultural tenet akin to children wearing stripes and respect for the monarch. A Big Deal, basically. This is juxtaposed with the reader’s disdain and ignorance - they have no idea how any of this works because soulmates weren't a Thing before the barrier broke, and they don’t really care to know, because the bond is nothing but a Big Problem they plan on rectifying. Yay to miscommunication and misunderstanding!
Now, for the monsters to feel that reverence, there has to be some advantage to having a soulmate Underground, right? Particularly in the cut-throat environment of Swapfell (or any Fellverse in general) - if this was just another glaring weakness ready to be exploited, everyone would do their best to avoid meeting their soulmate.
This brings us to:
Soulmates in a Fell Underground; what’s so good about having a soulmate, anyway?
First off, let’s talk about the downsides.
The biggest one is if your soulmate dies, that’s it for you too. You share HP and if you’re both drained, you’re dust. No second chances. This is obviously a massive, easily exploited weakness, and one that I think would’ve shaped the way soulmates cohabitate and interact with each other. I mention in the second chapter of Wishbone that typically the weaker monster(s) will move in with the stronger; this is one of those things that would’ve arisen to protect against this weakness. I think collars would exist for a similar reason in this universe.
Soulmate sickness. An issue if you’re separated from your soulmate, but it would’ve been much rarer Underground. In terms of sheer physical space available, it’d be pretty hard to get physically far enough to cause major issues, and like Papyrus says in Wishbone, soulmates don’t try to avoid each other. The situation in the fic is practically unprecedented.
For the stronger monster, you’re now responsible to ensure the survival of someone(s) weaker than you. Kinda hard to just look out for number one now. You’ve got a whole other person/group of people to keep safe and happy. That's a lot of pressure!
For the weaker monster, you might now find yourself the target of someone seeking to hurt your stronger soulmate(s).
All of that really sucks. There’s gotta be some pretty good benefits to offset all of those downsides.
And there are!
You get to share HP, EXP, LV. We’ve touched on the negatives, but there’s a huge advantage to this too. Not everyone’s bound to a soulmate. In a fight with an unbound person vs a bound one, the bound one theoretically has access to double the power.
Having a soulmate gives you a built-in ally, someone you can trust to have your back. They’ll always have your best interests at heart, because their interests are yours. Underground, this would’ve been an advantage to have over your unbound counterparts who can’t really trust their allies fully.
There’s also all the stuff Papyrus said when he was telling the Second Mage about the origin/purpose of soulmates. Monster souls are composed of love, hope, and compassion, and they inherently seek connection with others. He explains that soulmates have existed for as long as monsters can remember, as a way for souls to find individuals who can fulfill their need for hope, trust, love, and compassion. In an Underground where finding this with others was scarce, this is a big bonus. (As a side note, I think this adds a new layer to Sans’ glove wearing. The gloves actively prevent him from touching others and finding a soulmate. For a tactically minded person who is very aware of the strategic bonus of a soulmate, it says a lot that he's purposely passing up on all of those benefits.)
And that’s just all the purely practical stuff. Finding your soulmate(s) is highly romanticised. A bright spot in the otherwise bleak Underground. The stuff of fairytales - literally, Sans talks about telling those stories to Papyrus in chapter 2. There’s a reason Papyrus is so excited to be a soulmate (note that he’s not fussed about who that soulmate actually is).
Okay, but now the barrier’s broken and everyone’s above ground. Now what?
Great question, hypothetical person!
Firstly: a whole lotta monsters find their soulmates in humans. Remember how monsters can have soulmates in monsters and/or humans? This means that lots of monsters Underground were unable to meet their human, above ground soulmates. Now that they're free, this changes. This is a mostly good thing for the monsters, but I'm sure that a lot of humans in pre-existing relationships now had to grapple with the fact that they're now telepathically bound to their literal soulmate after accidentally brushing hands at the grocery store.
In the wider context of human society, I think there’d be mixed reactions, but what’s more shocking, monsters having soulmates or the mere existence of monsters in the first place? I think by the time everyone gets over the monster thing, the whole monster soulmate thing would be a lot less crazy in comparison.
In the context of mage society - before Wishbone, this just wasn’t an issue, because everyone thought that monsters can’t have mage soulmates. We’re now dealing with the fallout from realising that isn’t the case in the fic.
Where does this leave us?
A fun angsty playground to play around in, full of pits and spikes and traps, in my opinion! There’s so much cultural stuff that the reader insert in Wishbone just doesn’t get. Rules and norms and expectations that they know nothing about and can't really learn on their own, because so much of this knowledge is passed down through oral storytelling.
This is just another issue the characters need to contend with - they aren’t on equal footing for a million reasons, and one of those reasons is that they all know and believe different things about the bond and nobody is communicating about any of it. Well, Papyrus tried, but was shut down immediately. Which makes sense - he tried because he wants to have a proper, close bond with the reader, the kind he's wanted his whole life, and the reader shut it down because they have no interest in any of that. Not to mention round-the-clock glove wearing Sans, who has some pre-existing Issues with the idea of having a soulmate altogether.
But like Papyrus said, the supposed purpose of the bond is to help people get their fix of love, hope, and compassion, things that all three of them need if they ever want to be truly happy. In particular; Papyrus is desperate to be loved, and also doesn’t love himself; Sans has put so much space between himself and compassion as a protective measure over the years that it’s almost completely foreign to him, both feeling it for others (note that the Second Mage invokes reluctant compassion in him almost immediately, despite how much he hates them) and accepting it from those who care about him; and the reader, someone so focussed on building a better future for others, is completely without hope on a personal level because they see no future for themselves in the wake of the loss of their twin.
So, in theory, this whole soulmate thing could be good for all of them. I guess we'll just have to see if that's the case in practice.
20 notes · View notes
genericpuff · 8 months
Note
Let me preface this: I'm an architecture major
I used to be a big LO fan but obviously fell out of love of it like a lot of us did, and I know LO uses SketchUp for backgrounds. That is not an issue I have with the comic or any comic, I want artists to have an easier time in any way they can. I was always under the impression Rachel imported the models into Photoshop and drew over them like you can see in the early episodes with the sketchy lines. Well, school just started recently for me and I now have access to SketchUp for my coursework, and I made a few discoveries: 1. Photoshop cannot read SketchUp files, and while you can import them into Clip Studio through some configuring, they can be finicky and will lose parts in the importing process, so they are best used into the original SketchUp program to export as PNGs. 2. Many of the models Rachel uses are incredibly easy to find, especially if you put "modern", "luxury", or "classy" before the main part of the search. Many of the houses and rooms for example are first page results. 3. The biggest discovery: You know how we all assumed Rachel was hand-drawing all the lines over the SketchUp models and how she gave up the longer LO went on? Well, it's actually worse. It turns out SketchUp has a thing called "Styles" in it, which means you can mess with the lines and look of the model, such as making it look more like a blueprint or playing with the colors. Well, they have a lot of styles on SketchUp known as "sketchy lines", which are the exact ones Rachel used early in the comic to fit with her style, and it takes a literal click of a button to do. All she would do is pose the model, click the sketchy line style, and export the PNG. That's it. So, yeah, Rachel is so checked out of the comic that she can't even bother to click a single button to make the models fit into the comic's style anymore. Use that information however you like.
Ouhhh sorry OP, I'm about to like, undo all the work you just put into that ask. We've already known about the 3D background problem for a long while now.
First off, it's more likely LO doesn't use SketchUp but actually Acon3D, which is a website that offers 3D models both for free and at cost, which are actually compatible with software like Clip Studio. As soon as you open it up you'll likely see a lot of very familiar backgrounds that are often used in romances, isekais, and period pieces. It's literally the go-to spot for Webtoon Originals creators. Like, to the point that I wouldn't be surprised if Naver was partnered with them because of how many of their creators use it.
Second, there's plenty of up-to-date evidence to support the fact that Rachel doesn't exclusively stick to one software, sometimes she's drawing in Photoshop, sometimes she's drawing in Clip Studio Paint, sometimes she's drawing in Procreate. She's undoubtedly using Clip Studio for her paneling, speech bubbles, and backgrounds, as there are built in tools to utilize and convert 3D materials into lineart, among other features that are recognizable as coming from CSP because they're not available in PS or Procreate.
Third, yes, she just uses filters to turn her backgrounds into lineart, this has been apparent since S1. The only backgrounds she's ever 'hand drawn' were the ones involving lots of nature and even those are mostly just Photoshop brushes stamped on.
Tumblr media
Like I realize I'm probably bursting your bubble here and I apologize for that lmao but these buildings were never hand-drawn, this is not new information ( ̄﹏ ̄;) I appreciate you mentioning your own experiences with it as you're learning it though, I find once you start to learn the process yourself you really start to notice what others are doing. Even I've gone through that over the past couple years as I started to use 3D models and more advanced tools specifically for drawing webtoons.
I will mention btw, there's nothing wrong with using 3D models for your character drawing and backgrounds. The only time it tends to get frustrating is when you're reading a comic that isn't making any attempts to blend the background in with the art style.
Like, The Kiss Bet probably uses 3D models to help with perspective and laying out scenes quickly without second-guessing, but you can tell they still hand-draw over the models because they look natural and like they belong to the comic's stylization. The characters don't look out of place sitting in a living room and the living room doesn't look distracting.
Tumblr media
But then you get stuff like Lore Olympus, Let's Play, and Midnight Poppy Land, and it becomes a bit more obvious they're not giving a shit about backgrounds lmao
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
I get it, WT's deadlines are cutthroat as fuck, but if it's getting to the point that you have an entire team behind you and you're literally just copy pasting video game models from Phantom Hourglass, then it's probably time to re-focus your priorities a bit. There are comics with as few as 1-2 assistants (and even in some cases no assistants at all!!) pulling off backgrounds better than this, even when they're taking shortcuts.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
(Nevermore and City of Blank)
But a lot of that does come down to how WT manages its expectations as well as support for their creators. The deadlines and requirements WT puts their creators under are insane and awful in the long-term, and they're not acting with the amount of professionalism they ought to be for a platform that's trying to breakout as a major publisher here in the West. I feel like it comes down to WT loosening the choke chain around their creators, but also creating a standardized level of quality to ensure it's not suffering for the sake of quantity. The traditional literature industry has real editors and stages of quality control for a reason, whereas WT is more interested in just throwing as many series at the wall and dumping all their stock into the ones that stick.
86 notes · View notes