#it sooooort of makes sense when you think like

[cave-monkey]

It dawns on me that the journey to the west took 5,040 days exactly, right, and while the book goes from tribulation to tribulation, there were still only 81 of those. And they were missing one when they got there. And some of the tribulations Tripitaka went through happened before the journey even started.

So, even being generous and saying that most of the tribulations that occurred during the actual journey could be said to have taken a few days to handle each, that's still only about 10% of the journey. A tribulation was anything that happened that put Tripitaka in danger or presented any sort of obstacle to him. Anything even remotely exciting would have fallen into that ~10%, and nothing else could have happened, because otherwise they wouldn't have gotten west one moderate inconvenience and/or major trauma short of the prize. (I mean, unless the thing that happened managed to not involve Tripitaka at all in any way, but that's very hard to do when you are all attached at the hip.)

Holy cow they really were just walking. ALL THAT TIME. No wonder Zhu Bajie was stirring the pot at any given opportunity. It was literally the only thing to do.

#jttw personal #how did they not kill each other #I was thinking about this while still picking at chapter 27 #tripitaka was super gullible in that chapter in a sort of inexcusable way but also #it sooooort of makes sense when you think like #statistically #across the whole journey they could have gone moooonths between demons #years even #and suddenly sun wukong's claiming to have killed 3 (they didn't know it was the same demon) in a row in one morning? #even if tripitaka HAD believed him (or just harbored doubts) after the first one how likely was it the second was the case? or the THIRD? #obviously the evidence was in his face but couple the idea that their encounters with demons were actually SUPER rare #with the fact that tripitaka still had major trust issues with sun wukong from the fact he HAD trusted sun wukong previously #only to have that trust pretty solidly broken #and tripitaka's probably operating on a level of 'fool me once' hyper-vigilance against him that actually makes zhu bajie seem reasonable #I mean who are you going to trust? you and your own shitty judgement when you've already been wrong about the guy once before? #or the DEMON who probably knows more about DEMON MAGIC than you? #tripitaka's got TWO expert consults telling him two wildly opposing things but only ONE of them's seriously burned him in the past #(while the third expert consult and tie-breaker is notably abstaining. gdit sha wujing.) #anyway the characterization here is actually really good #tripitaka doesn't know the story framing - WE know something's up because otherwise we wouldn't have a story about it - #but tripitaka doesn't realize he's in a book #and I'm just saying tripitaka is being less foolish than the meta knowledge of being The Reader makes him seem #still a total brat though #he's definitely letting his own pride and hurt (and like...trauma) bias him against sun wukong unfairly #which is something he needs to work on and IS something that he pays for #(even with the bandits: expecting sun wukong to behave to tripitaka's standards of morality prior to TEACHING him those standards) #(wasn't fair. but also when he *tried* to address it sun wukong got angry and took off. and then tried to kill him. so.) #it's just interesting and whoever told this story originally was clearly putting a lot of thought into what it would be like #to actually be in these guys' shoes. Like ugh. HOW is this book so good?

[miss-mossball]

Teacup and/or Snow!

Full Name: Luna Snow Labelle (goes by Snow White)

Gender and Sexuality: Female, not all too sure about the rest yet!

Pronouns: she/her

Ethnicity/Species: Human

Birthplace and Birthdate: Born sometime in the fall(no one’s quite sure when) in an long-abandoned manor

Guilty Pleasures: Wandering off with her sister, daydreaming, admiring pretty people to fall in love with for a little bit… * - * Also feeding and playing with wild animals. And running into danger to make a new friend with monsters

Phobias: Loosing her sister or mother

What They Would Be Famous For: Technically being sort of a lost princess..

But she’d much rather be known for becoming a powerful healing witch alongside her brilliant weapon-wielding sister Red

What They Would Get Arrested For: Possibly being framed for something I imagine?

OC You Ship Them With: I don’t remember if she has any ~official~ ships, but she does fall in love a lot. She has a crush on the Cygni Prince, Siegfried. But who doesn’t?

And also Manna :DD <3

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: just about anything could, really. She’s very naive and accidentally waltzes into a lot of trouble

A very angry troll,

And a faraway queen, but so many kingdoms have broken up in the wars, they’re not certain to find eachother again

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: =<=;…….cheesy erotica

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: major character death ☹

Talents and/or Powers: Typical healing powers,like the undoing of an immediate wound. Lending a magical strength booster.

Water-based magic, both as a healing thing and an attack :v just… woterbending but with a staff?

She has some skills in potion-making, so far all she can do is poison apples or add strengthening boost to them… Best not to try either way, just in case

Her powers ‘recharge’ under the moonlight and in the cold

She inherited gifts from the Fairy Godmothers through her mother, including the gift of Beauty, Generosity and Temperament. From her father’s side, a quick learner of magic. The godmothers personally gave her the gift of healing as well :v

Other than magical skills, Snow’s learning how to knit and crochet from her mother <3

Why Someone Might Love Them: She’s open-minded and thoughtful about the people around her. Snow isn’t the type to judge. More likely to love you for what you may think are imperfections. She can be a bit flighty, but once you get close to her, she’s very playful and inviting and affectionate. Her love comes in quick bursts and waxes and wanes with the moon

 Why Someone Might Hate Them: Snow can be a bit of a hassle on her own, she’s really better in a supporting role that’s protected sorta position. …Unfortunately, she has a bad habit of daydreaming and wandering off dazedly. She doesn’t have a good sense of who likes her or not, so hints and clues fly straight over her head.

How They Change: A lot of the changes come from a time she doesn’t remember, between being born to Sleeping Beauty, and fleeing from royalty in a very messy era. Sol and Luna became snow White and Rose Red,and their mother Talia went from being rich nobility to a contented yarn and threadmaker in a very humble village.

Nowadays, in the quiet and the calm, Snow’s become a bit restless to go out on adventures with her sister. I think a lot of her change would be growing as a person and becoming more independent :v

I’m not sure if I’m keeping the whole immortality thing or not(I was in a weird existential crisis when I came up with that bit :v), but if I do, the eventual loss of her sister would make Snow into a lone vagabond who wanders the earth aimlessly, helping whoever she can and leaving a little love behind in her wake.

Why You Love Them: Snow White and Rose Red is my favprite fairytale ;3; Other than Sleeping Beauty! So combining the two is just.. I have so much love for it. I love Snow especially because she’s kinddd off sooooort offff based on Bunny, with Red Rose being based on Bunny’s cousin Taiga, anddddd its just Special and Good, I dunno! a lot of attachment tm

Also, my aesthetic game w these ocs really hit somethin

#snow white and rose red #snow white #my ocs #doodle heaven #oc askeses #thank u for the ask boo <3 i already did teacup so enjoy your other waifu u3u

[phdmama]

Fic Writer Questions

Thank you for tagging me, @slytherinzouis! These are fun!

How many works do you have on Ao3?

95 - HOLY HECK!! I didn’t realize it was that many!

What’s your total Ao3 word count?

787,686 - I don’t think I can get to a million this year. Maybe next year? Also that’s such a nice number, it’ll be tough to change that ha ha

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

I’ve got 64 fics published for 1D, 31 for HP, and 1 listed as multifandom which is a compilation of a bunch of shorter pieces.

I am actually writing some Stucky but who knows if I’ll ever finish it or publish it. I’m not counting on it.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Hold My Heart (LARRY, co-written with @a-writerwrites, and I’m sure it’s her popularity that drove that one!)

I Like the Way You Move for Me (Drarry, written for @bixgirl1)

Feels Like Coming Home (Larry)

Beautiful Madness (Drarry, utter ridiculousness and hot gifs!)

On the Go (Larry, this was entirely @kingsofeverything‘s fault)

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I realllly don’t write angsty endings, having a happy ending is really important to me. I wrote one Larry fic - We Had a Good Thing (Going) - where I had an open ending, but in MY HEAD it’s a happy ending, they get their shit together. Other than that, yeah. Happy endings all the way.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

I guess it depends on what you mean by happy? I think for me personally, Feels Like Coming Home and (We'll Call This Fixer-Upper) Home  (Drarry) are fics that feel like they address a lot of pain and a lot of healing, and the way two people can fall apart and fall together, and how love heals. So they’re not fluffy, I don’t think, but to me, they’re very real and solid. The endings feel like *real* happy endings (which is to say, beginnings as well). 

Do you write crossovers?

I don’t think I have! i’ve got a wizard Larry thing in flight that that’s sooooort of a harry potter world? but in the US? 

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

For the most part, not particularly kinky smut at all. I write a lot of non-penetration smut. I’ve written some bad sex, some great sex, some fun sex. I feel like my smut writing tends to be more buildup and less focusing on all the minutia of the encounter. Usually feelings are involved but not always.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I very much try to! I will admit I had a period where I got really overwhelmed and sort of checked out, and I’m trying to get back on track and answer. THey. mean SO MUCH to me!

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I don’t think so, at least, not to my face. I’ve had people ask only “WHO BOTTOMS” which makes me a bit irritated. I am still salty about a comment on a bookmark about how I addressed an addiction recovery process, saying that it wasn’t realistic when I literally have both personal experience and had it med-picked by an addictions psychologist (and, err, I’m also a licensed psychologist so.....) - yeah. Still a bit salty.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don’t think so? I’m not that big a writer, none of my stuff is that popular! I did have someone put a bunch of them on Goodreads, which didn’t feel great so I was able to get them taken down.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I’ve been approached a few times, and I generally say no for a couple of reasons. The first is that translation is an art, and I’d want to be very involved in the process, and I don’t have the spoons for that. Also, since I can only read one langauge, I don’t at this point want things attirbuted to me that I can’t make sure are what I want, if that makes sense.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Just two! Hold My Heart, which is listed above, and Wine Not, which I worked on with so many amazing writers. That chat is still one of my favorite places to be and we talk every day! I’ve also written a few things inspired by my darling @julcheninred!

Harry Scissorhands (art collaboration with @m4g0rtz)

Whispers in the Dark (art collaboration with @m4g0rtz)

The Common Pneumerator

What’s your all time favorite ship?

I can’t have just one. I mean, Drarry is probably my oldest love. Larry will always always have a soft spot in my heart. Sterek is a HUGE LOVE right now. I’ve read some amazing Destial and I’m very open to more. I read a ton of ships in OMGCP. I definitely read other pairings in 1D, HP, SPN. 

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but you don’t think you ever will?

Uggh. Too many to list, sadly. I do want to finish them all, but I don’t know. We’ll see.

What are your writing strengths?

Umm. I’m not sure I’m the best to evaluate that? I tend to be... pretty critical of my own writing. I can definitely get into a flow of short, funny things, and I do like those. I also think I can do angsty-pain okay? I love writing good communication and feelings. Don’t know how well I do it though.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I can get too caught up in the details and in a continuous linear flow (I.e. no scene jumps) . Finishing stuff is hard too. I love starting things.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

If it’s there, I love having a translation provided. I don’t really do it because I’m an American heathen who only speaks one language!

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Well to be honest, I wrote my first fic at 16 (so... pre-everyone on the internet by, like a LOT) - I wrote it for a friend, so it was a self-insert but friend-insert? About Mikhail Baryshnikov. The first fandom I published in on AO3 was 1D.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I don’t have a favorite! I will confess, I do reread my own stuff because I do write stories I want to read. It helps to give them a year or two before I reread. I cringe a bit at the writing in some of my earlier stuff when I was still trying to sound like popular fic in the fandom as opposed to having found my own voice (god some of the cliches are painful!!), but it’s also part of the learning process so I’m not planning at this point to take anything down. Anything I’ve linked here, I’d love for people to read, and are all fics I have a fondness for!

I feel like everyone’s been tagged in this one? But if you haven’t and want to do it! Please do and tag me!! :-D

[buckybilson-blog]

Research in Games with a capital R (and a capital G)

Are there any video games you can think off of the top of your head where you have to do Research (with a capital R - creating a question, info gathering and then info sorting and discarding, preferably across different formats) in order to succeed/survive?

YES! I mean this is a deep question but I think the answer is definitely yes.

The root of gaming lies in problem-solving, the application of skills to an unknown and alien, or indeed familiar environment. There are obviously games that require minimal problem-solving (think a lot of FPS shooters: DOOM, CoD etc) but even they when different intentions are applied (multiplayer, speed-running, achievement-hunting) can become exercises in complicated min-max'ing activities and strategy designing.

Let's take some examples of games that require you to design a question (how do I defeat this particular enemy?), collect information (attempt multiple different strategies), sort that information (what worked/what didn't work?) and identify the optimal strategy (Yay I won). Imma list a few:

Dark Souls (1-3) + Bloodbourne + Demon Souls (IE FromSoft back catalogue)

Darkest Dungeon

ARK

Payday 1+2 (more 2 tbh)

XCOM

MOBAs in general (Dota, LoL, HotS)

Card games (Hearthstone, Gwent etc)

Final Fantasy I-XXXXXXXXX

Metal Gear Solid I-V

Player Unknown (sooooort of)

Stellaris

Stardew valley

Offworld Trading Company.

I'll split those into... let's say three categories:

Single-Player Combat: Dark souls Darkest Dungeon XCOM FF XXXXXXX

Single-Player Empire/Economy: Stellaris Stardew Valley Offworld Trading Co

Multiplayer Competitive: MOBAs Player Unknown Hearthstone

Bugger, that leaves Payday and ARK which don't really fit. I guess Payday can be collaborative multiplayer and ARK is both that and Multiplayer Competitive. I'll use them as examples like somewhere.

So Single Player Combat:

These games are hard and a lot of people resort to guides to complete them. Well, fair enough that's a really simple way of stating "yes research is required to complete this game" but that's a little simplistic. These games require the player to understand them at a deep level. In the case of Dark Souls it can literally come down to learning how many frames of attack (ie literally how many miniscule motions) an enemy has in order to maximise the possibility of defeating them. For a player not following a guide, this requires many many attempts and different positioning to learn each moveset that an enemy has to design an optimal path. Darkest Dungeon has enemies with completely unknown behaviours until you see them happen or create the environment for them to occur. In order to learn the possibilities, you have to test theorums (this enemy has a suprisingly low number of moves which makes me wonder whether they have more. I wonder what happens if they catch fire NB: YOU CAN'T SET PEOPLE ON FIRE.). XCOM: the AI has identified my standard movements, I need to adjust and develop new strategies. FF One through to a billion (I lost count) learning about bosses takes multiple attempts and different team formations and development of characters.

In a broader sense, RPG elements: only by experimenting with different stat and equipment loadouts can you learn which will be successful. AI elements: if the enemy AI is learning your movements, you need to formulate new strategies in order to counter this.

Single-Player Economy:

This will be shorter: Games will have optimal strats (See Stardew Valley, strawberries for life yo) but identifying the method to getting there and identified that strawberries were designed to form the greatest communist society the world has ever known (seriously Stardew Valley is low-key communist uprising material, check it out) takes time.

Stellaris literally has researchers that you send out to collect information about the worlds around you. Yes this information is usually pretty basic (this planet is habitable, this planet is unhabitable, this planet is covered in bees so like you make the call) but you as the emperor/hive-mind need to decide which is best for your people/robots/hegemonous swarm to move to.

Multiplayer Competitive:

This is probably the easiest example for me because I spend so much time playing them but as a competitive Hearthstone or MOBA player, you are expected to keep up with the meta and learn about the current archetypes being played. You need to know about all the interactions that abilities/cards play against another, I mean watch this: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nJDHtyh7PU 

and tell me that isn't some complicated mechanics that the player has to hunt down themselves and understand and then adjust their play style to account for.

In games like Player Unknown, there are so many random variables that it is difficult to identify what an optimal strategy is. Hearthstone/MOBA games can probably by and large be expressed as mathematical equations (this was in fact done for a derivative game-type of Hearthstone to a high degree of success) but competitive FPS' are much more random. HOWEVER, there are significant elements to research and adapt for. Player Unknown, the global phenomenom that it is, is buggy as hell. Use of these bugs is now commonly adopted and gives a great advantage to the experimenter (look up crouch-jumping, snap-aiming etc).

IDK that feels like a lot to be getting on with and hopefully answers the question. MWAH. bye.

#Research #gaming #friendinoquestiono