#redwintertalks

[redwinterroses]

hermitcraft crack headcanon: Ren is a werewolf, yes. Which means that every full moon he turns into a wolf. But like... a minecraft wolf. Who can be tamed with bones. And his "tamed" quality resets every time he shifts back.

Other hermits occasionally compete to be the first one to "tame" Ren for the month, and brag about how few bones they had to use. (Ren claims to remember none of this but if you pranked him recently it's going to take a lot more bones than usual.) The current record holder is Doc, who only had to use three, but Bdubs stubbornly holds that it doesn't count and that Doc cheated by giving Ren a shulker of fully-oxidized copper the day before.

Xisuma quietly added a new advancement to the server that Ren still hasn't found out about. But every month, it'll pop up in chat: "____ has made the advancement [Best Cyber-Diggity-Dogs Forever]".

#hermitcraft #hermitcraft headcanons #rendog #redwintertalks

[redwinterroses]

Just saw a comment about the Hermitcraft Vault Hunters that was like "So good to see the Hermits finally get into modded!"

And like--

Okay, first off, Hermitcraft is not vanilla, my friend. It's maybe Artificially Vanilla Flavored, but it's a modded server at this point.

Secondly, do the Life Series, Hermitcraft UHCs, and the Create series mean nothing to you? /lh

And maybe that's not enough people involved to feel like "modded Hermits" overall, but even if so: Joe of the Hills did not set the entire Hermitcraft FTB Ultimate nether on fire for people to act like the Hermits have never done modded. XD

#hermitcraft #redwintertalks

[redwinterroses]

I love the hc of Impulse being the "gives great hugs" hermit as much as anyone (actually I'm very attached to this hc) and yet on the other hand: it's hilarious to imagine hermit-Impulse with irl-Impulse's "please do not hug me. do not want" trait, but everyone still assumes he's a hugger because a) he is too nice to discourage people until he knows them really well and at that point it's too late and b) he actually does give great hugs, to his everlasting chagrin.

#it's really funny to me that the one guy we know doesn't like hugs #is the one headcanoned as being The Hug Guy #so I want to smash facts and headcanons together somehow and this is the funniest version I can think of #impulsesv #hermitcraft #redwintertalks

[redwinterroses]

Friendly reminder that, by the most literal interpretation of Grian's lore: you're a Watcher. I'm a Watcher. If you watch content, you're a Watcher.

So get out there and be the vaguely eldritch abomination you want to see in the world.

#also friendly reminder that canonically grian never left the Watchers. he's still one of us. #grian #hermitcraft #redwintertalks #the Watchers

[redwinterroses]

Holy cow -- so the signed HC-TCG cards apparently ran into some trouble when shipping back from the hermits who signed them to the CREO people who would pack and send them out to us. Problems that looked like the silver marker used for signing them bleeding onto the back of the next card in the stack.

"Disaster! While we could absorb the cost of re-printing the cards, the timeline impact would be dramatic, as it would take months to re-print the cards, cut/trim them, send for signing, and finally return for final assembly and shipping." (<- from the update email)

So what did they decide to do to fix this problem with as little delay as possible?

They're cleaning them. Every card. By hand.

"We are ever-so-carefully wiping the back of each and every card, holding it in one (gloved) hand and wiping with the other, so as to not disturb either the varnish and Spot UV finish on the back of each card, or the signature on the front of the card."

I've been sitting here bouncing in my seat like a 5yo going "Are they here yet? Are they here yet?" But knowing this: I'm content to wait a little bit longer. Props to the folks at CREO (and especially to Luke Chesney, the founder, who is apparently a longtime Hermitcraft fan) for not just going "Eh. It's fine," and shipping the cards with the blemishes. That's a company I'd be interested in buying from again.

...but also I'm five so I will still be checking my mailbox every day. XD

#redwintertalks #hc tcg #hermitcraft tcg

[redwinterroses]

I love the agreed-on design choices that have turned into shorthand for recognizing characters. Pink hair and a crown? Technoblade. Green stripes and wings? Philza. Blonde with a red sweater? ...well, you could be looking at one of two characters, but if the wings are purple or parrot it's Grian and if he's got white wings and cheek bandaids it's Tommy. Space-age armor = Xisuma. Fangs and suspenders = Rendog. Tall with a dark mustache = Mumbo Jumbo. Any sort of scarring = probably Scar. Red eyes = Tango. Indiana Jones in blue = Pixlriffs. Snakes for hair = Cleo. Any kind of black+white+neon green theming = almost certainly JoeHills.

I dunno, I just love that there are certain design choices, things that aren't always even represented by the player's minecraft skin, that are so ubiquitous. I can look at a design that looks nothing like anything I've seen before and have a good shot at recognizing the character immediately. It's just kinda cool.

#redwintertalks #mcyt #almost added 'mask = dre@m' but I'm not touching that discussion with a 10ft pole right now lol #also sorry Luna but OBVIOUSLY this makes me think about The Survey 👀 XD

[redwinterroses]

I like to do this grounding exercise I jokingly call "go touch grass" but honestly it's... almost exactly that.

First you need to go outside. It doesn't have to be far, it doesn't have to be "in nature" -- just somewhere with a bit of wind and sky. A parking lot is as good as a pasture. Make sure you're safe and aware of your surroundings, that you're not about to get run over by a cow or eaten by a moving van.

Close your eyes. Become aware of the surface of your skin. Can you feel the wind on it? Can you feel how it's stronger on one side of your nose and there's a bit of a lee on the other cheek? Can you feel that strand of hair against your neck? Is there sunlight? Feel how you can actually register the heat of it wherever it touches. Maybe the wind competes with the sunlight. Maybe it's cloudy. Maybe there are tiny raindrops that hit your skin. Feel it.

Look down. Really look, like you're five years old again, looking for Special Rocks. Find a bug and follow its path across the pavement. Look at the pattern in the gravel, the way it piles up against the side of your foot. Grind your toe into the ground a bit, see how you cause a mountain range to appear in the dirt. Look at the individual blades of grass, and that dead leaf -- look at its delicate veins. See the little tufts of fibers on the heads of the grassy weeds and how they tremble at the slightest breeze. You can crush them underfoot if you want to -- they'll grow back. Smell the green scent of the broken stems, and then look at how many thousands more blades of grass there are around you, unperturbed.

Look up. See the sky, through the branches or between buildings or over your neighbor's roof. Are there clouds? Look at the way the light filters through them. Tilt your head to the side and see how changing your perspective can heighten your understanding of the shadows. Is there a plane flying over? Maybe a bird? Watch it until it's out of sight. Maybe there are stars. Look closely at their shifting colors and try to name them -- is it blue? or red? or something that's neither?

Listen. Take in one by one the sounds of distant traffic, of a neighbor's washing machine, of the kids next door or the dog three doors down, the birdsong across the creek, the squirrel chittering in the maple tree. Single the sounds out one by one and really listen to them, the way you'd listen to a new song that you're trying to understand the words to. Lick your lips and listen to the sound your jaw makes when you move, or the brush of your hair against your ear, the sound your jeans make as you walk, the crunch of dry grass underfoot or the sksh-sksh of gravel.

Take in every sense with deliberate intent. Focus on your skin, on the tips of your fingers brushing against a brick wall or clasping a porch rail or just rubbing the cloth of your shirt between them. Feel how the air moves over your arms. Listen to the sound of it and the sounds of the world moving around you, whether it's a busy downtown or a rural driveway. Wiggle your toes inside your shoe and be aware of how the pressure changes as you move them. Walk and try to register each shifting muscle as your feet bend, legs picking up and setting down again.

I have bad anxiety -- some weeks worse than others. I've taken to going on a walk every day during my break at work and doing this process as I go. It never fails to make me feel more solid and grounded, and while I've never had much luck with straight meditation, I think this comes pretty close.

You are real, you exist, the world is moving at its proper pace, and all around you life is blooming and growing and shifting and becoming.

"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."

#redwintertalks #anxiety relief #mindfulness #not mcyt #long post

[redwinterroses]

one of the best things I've seen about the hermitcraft fan community growing (in my relatively short time as part of it) is that at some point the hermits stopped having to cut out or justify themselves every time they went and borrowed/stole something from a friend. I'm not sure what the change was, but I remember several posts or bits of video pre-2021 where various hermits had to be like, "Yes, I took five stacks of XYZ from so-and-so's farm, but it's okay, we're friends, I have permission." And the comments would still be full of people (probably mostly 14yo kids) making all sorts of accusations.

Now Mumbo just blatantly takes stuff out of Grian's storage on camera and it's a meme at this point. No one cares. I love it.

#tbh i genuinely think the ''lag in boatem'' jokes did a lot for this #redwintertalks

[redwinterroses]

every time I see that "words to use instead of 'said'" post I die a little inside.

1. Just use "said." It's an invisible word. If you're using it often enough that it's noticeable, you've got a problem with your prose and pacing, not your vocabulary.

2. half those words don't quite mean what the author thinks they mean.

3. if you use "uttered" more than once every 50k words, you're doing a lot of things wrong, and that's probably not the worst of it.

#writeblr #yes i maintagged it #this sounds harsh. it is #it's 6 in the morning and that was the first post on my dash #kill it with fire #if you're a novice enough writer that you need synonyms for 'said' you have no business using half the words on that list #ESPECIALLY not in place of 'said' #redwintertalks

[redwinterroses]

...lol, some of y'all need to cool it juuuuuust a little about Bdubs learning fandom ways and sharing his discoveries with other hermits.

It's kinda fun to be all "aaaah! he found us! scatter!" and laugh about being the bugs Bdubs found under a rock, but there are absolutely people who are freaking out way too much about this.

It's actually not a big deal. Please don't take fandoms this seriously -- the hermits are adults who know exactly what they're doing and 99% of what they're doing is good-natured trolling of their fans. It's fond teasing. And a hefty dash of them genuinely wanting to see fan content.

Just... get in on the fun and be a "oooooh so startled! I'm just a bug under a rock! oh dearie me!" with us, don't ACTUALLY panic.

#people are getting waaaaay too worked up about this #if you create content of a real person and post it online you do so knowing there's a tiny but non-zero chance of them finding it #that's a risk you take. some of y'all are acting like bdubs and the gang are doing something WRONG #like they somehow don't have the right to be here and see things or something #chill out. in 5 months no one will even be talking about this #discourse #redwintertalks

[redwinterroses]

things that used to be really popular and I don't see enough of them anymore:

-doll/puppet Grian

-related: NPC Grian

-winged Impulse

-wither!pulse

-android and/or redstone Tango

-voidborn/entity Zedaph

It's interesting to see trends come and go (a year ago, winged or watcher Grian was actually not the norm) but these are ones I'd love to see come back.

#redwintertalks #... there was a witherpulse fic that went on hiatus when i was reading...i wonder if i could find it again #hermitcraft

[redwinterroses]

Someone needs to write a goofy children's picture book about Scar and Doc as neighbors and how their bases get progressively more unhinged in opposite directions. Scar adds hundreds of acres of gardens and parkland. Doc digs a hole to the earth's core. Scar builds beautiful streets and shops. Doc builds a supercharged weapon. Scar adds 18 metric tons of tinsel. Doc gets a pet dragon.

#hermitcraft #redwintertalks #hermitcraft spoilers

[redwinterroses]

when you realize that Skizz gave Ren the leather that became the books that became the enchanter in 3rd Life :headinhands:

it all comes back to Skizzleman.

#he traded a golden apple for it. I'm going to track what happened to that golden apple now #answer: the golden apple blew up when the trap went off in front of dogwarts #3rd Life #trafficblr #skizzleman #redwintertalks

[redwinterroses]

every time someone uses "rancher duo" instead of "team rancher" I die a little inside.

#death to noun+'duo' names #they have a ship name and it's jango if you want to use that #dang twitter refugees get off my lawn /lh #redwintertalks #i'm grouchy this morning

[redwinterroses]

the struggle of wanting to gush to my favorite fic writers and artists about how awesome I think they are fighting with the fear of coming off as creepy and potentially stalkerish

#but there are such talented people!!! it's unbearable how good they are!! #but also I don't want to creep them out!! #redwintertalks

[redwinterroses]

My suspicion is that the next life series will have something to do with the size-changing mods. Now that we've seen things like inchling, the various smaller Origins in Afterlife, Rats SMP, and the smol empires!hermits, I suspect that the next game will involve that mechanic in some way.

Maybe each life will have a designated size. Maybe it'll be randomized and rerolled every time you die. There was some cool fanart at one point about titan red lives and their tiny greens, so it would be awesome to see some version of that in the game.

And I know it's not "original," and maybe I'm totally wrong and Grian will have something entirely new and shiny to show off. But the beauty of each life series hasn't been that the concepts were entirely new -- each of them had been done before in different flavors with things like XLife, Secret Rivals, Naked and Scared, etc.

No, the fun is in how Grian has combined existing ideas to make something fresh and interesting. So to see him look at (and test-run?) the size-changing mod makes me squint thoughtfully.

#traffic smp #trafficblr #redwintertalks