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silverskye13 · 1 year

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Being the universe's smartest super computer still made for a derpy, non-functional person. It was really easy for people to get caught up in the Cool Sci-Fi Shenanigans of cyborgs and robots and forget how awesome and powerful organic, sentient life was.

For example: Xisuma has a perfect memory. If someone gave him a date and a time, he could scan back through his memory logs, replay recorded data and footage, and tell you the exact recipe he used for those vegan cookies that one time six years ago. He knows the ambient temperature of a froglight that's been submerged underwater for six hours, three minutes and twenty-nine seconds. He can rewind a recorded memory, pause the time lapse, and watch in slow motion as Grian breaks a stone block at spawn with his bare hands because he was bored during their intro-season speech.

However, recorded data takes up a massive amount of memory on a standard hard drive when you record everything you see as a passive function, and all of it has to be purged by hand, regularly, just so Xisuma can maintain the memory needed for daily functions. He's tried writing algorithms to do it for him, but even the best pattern recognition software can't account for his momentary preferences. What differentiates his favorite sunrise from any other? If he were human, he could program some kind of learning software using data from tables tied to the output of different brain chemicals and electrical pulses that most frequently line up with a formative memory -- but if he were human he wouldn't be making a program like that in the first place, now would he?

It's one of those long, long days of trawling through recorded data. It would be shorter if he would just parse through the most recent memories, but he likes keeping long-term memory storage at exactly thirty percent of his total data storage, and he's been resting at thirty-four percent for the past month. Putting off the inevitable. It's just, there's been a lot of stuff to remember the past few weeks, and it's hard to choose what to get rid of sometimes. He's started deep-diving through old data, walking down memory lane. He has to be careful, some of this data is important, tied intricately with the complex spider algorithm that forms his memory data access system.

Click! Click! Click!

"What are you thinking, X?"

The screen that makes up the lion's share of X's face organizes itself into a smile, lights flickering on in the nanoseconds it takes him to process the memory he's watching and attribute happiness to it. Yes, this is a good one.

The playback jolts as he looks down at Tango. Not pictured is a redstone project they are picking away at. Xisuma knows this because this particular memory has a transcript, full of branching tags and keywords that pull up a wealth of information alongside it.

That's another thing about memory that organic life never appreciates. Memory isn't just the memory itself. It's a web of associations built on prior, learned knowledge. A tree isn't just a tree. It's color and texture and symbol and "when was the first time I drew a tree?" and "apples" and "saplings" and a thousand other tiny associations they just arbitrarily have. Xisuma has to synthesize that web. A memory doesn't exist in a vacuum. Unlike the organic mind, however, Xisuma can pull up as much accurate information as he has the processing power for. This memory brings him two more closely associated recordings, associated memories he's kept for context, the transcripts of six more deleted memories, the definition of redstone, a playback of isolated sound he deemed important.

The playback continues.

Click! Click! Click!

"What are you thinking, X?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Tango, I didn't know you'd walked up! I was doing research."

"Yeah? What kind?"

"Oh well, you know the new update. Redstone's always a little finicky after."

"Right, yeah, totally. I've been putting mine off, honestly. I don't feel like fixing broken stuff right now -- oh but, I guess you can't wait, huh?"

Xisuma parses through the data brought up with the memory. He knows the date this was recorded, the recent change to redstone mechanics brought on by the server update. He'd had three farms break. There was a linked document to a transcript of Doc's rant on redstone as it relates to radiation. There was a script note document typed the day after this recording was created: Clicking Good. There was a preliminary version of what he'd nicknamed "The Tick Script.Exe".

"Yeah, I've got a lot of bugs to fix."

"Are you going to get rid of the clicking?"

"Clicking?"

The clicking was an ambient noise made when Xisuma's system was a bit bulkier, his algorithms and scripts that handled memory and data access crude and unperfected. It caused a disc in a driver somewhere to click when he did searches. At the time, the clicking had been the closest thing to an annoying habit Xisuma could manage.

Computers don't have habits. Habits are repetitive motions that become subliminal, that take effort to break, and are oftentimes formed subconsciously. Xisuma doesn't have a discernable difference between conscious thought and subconscious. He has background processes, he has backburnered data, and he has executive commands.

Xisuma queries the memory, pulling up related tags and searches, letting the algorithm reach. This memory had been the start of a, for lack of a better term, humanification process for him. There was his observation table on organic ticks, habits, and movements. It had taken a lot of uncomfortable staring, but back then, staring was all he'd known how to do. One of the first entries on the table was blinking. Organic things blinked, clearing away dust and debris from lenses and membranes. Xisuma didn't have eyes, didn't blink. But the screen that managed his facial expression animations could be programmed to blink.

Xisuma queries blinking. He pulls up a transcript of an interaction with Stressmonster, where she mentioned he blinked every thirty seconds. She knew this because when she first noticed him blinking, she'd noticed it's regularity. That was when Xisuma learned that, to convincingly blink, time variation was necessary.

Coding randomization into redstone circuitry had always been difficult.

Xisuma returns to the Tango memory recording, replays the question about the clicking, the unintentional habit. Xisuma still clicked when he thought. The others probably still thought it had to do with bulky drivers. In reality, it had been a test in trial and error.

How many clicks was acceptable for a thinking pattern? The three dot ellipses was common in writing, and a two dot pattern was too reminiscent of a heartbeat. When he'd temporarily switched to a four dot pattern, he'd noticed people getting impatient, or worrying if his mechanics were stalling. (Stalling and slow loading does sometimes happen, but it manifests in freezes and long pauses, not in repeating clicks). He invented a three click pattern, tested a variety of click sounds, settled on something similar to a rotary phone click when a number is dialed. It was a good sound. Heavy and sharp. It sounded like something falling into place with intention. Click! Click! Click!

Xisuma doesn't actually need a sound to think. But it's a clever replacement for harder to code things, like remembering to two a surface or fidget.

Click! Click! Click!

Shifting weight had been a harder thing to code. Standing stationary, legs an equal width apart, was the most steady way to stand. It also made him look like a statue, made his unblinking stares eerie and uncomfortable. Organic things read it as unnatural, borderline on predatory. Large predators often froze and stared right before pouncing.

Looking back through old memories, Xisuma could tell if they were from before or after his algorithmic programming because of how still they were. Made for clearer visuals, and he knows in high-stress situations that focus on accuracy, he can cycle them off, but they're comfortable for people to watch.

Xisuma rocks back on his heels away from the screen he's watching. If someone else were in the room, it would be a sign of thoughtfulness. For him, it's the execution from a random table of acceptable fidgets while standing still. He should turn it off. He's alone right now. But sometimes the movements still catch him off-guard and the longer they run, the more he gets used to them.

Xisuma queries: rocking on heals

He gets a handful of save recording bits. Doc rocks onto his back legs and stretches his forelegs. Gem rocks back and forth on the balls of her feet, her arms crossed behind her back, mischievous and excited. Scar rocks back on his heels and crosses his arms, thoughtfully examining some terraforming. Xisuma isolates the last recording and mimics it, feeling how the weight of his crossed arms counterbalances the lean back.

Xisuma queries his habits table and adds the motion to the list.

He never quite figured out how to program what to do with his hands. They spent a lot of time at his sides, or in pockets. Objectively he knew that was bad. Hiding the hands was often a sign of hiding something, and he liked being transparent.

Xisuma queries: Hands

Xisuma blinks at the long list of results.

Xisuma queries: Hands behind back

He gets several animations of Gem, Grian, and Scar, all with some variation of hands behind their backs and mischievous grins. Most of them are snippets made for studying purposes. Two are attached to longer videos, catalogued memories he's kept. His query returns almost four hundred memory transcripts.

Xisuma likes making transcripts. He feels it's similar to the hazy, distant memories people have when time and distance transform them. When someone else remembers something falteringly, he remembers the way he described it to himself. The older transcripts were rougher. He's gotten better at writing them over the years. His learning and pattern recognition softwares are still pretty good, even if they aren't perfect enough to manage the full range of expression on their own.

Xisuma queries: Do my friends know how hard it is to look organic?

This returns no direct results. He receives a directory of the people he's flagged as "friends" over the years, an article on the recent organics additions to the world in the latest update, and a handful of unrelated memory documents where he'd asked this question before and similarly pulled up no response.

Xisuma queries: Do I care?

This pulls up more entries. Xisuma glances across them and clears them.

Xisuma queries: Do I care today?

This pulls up only slightly fewer entries. He smiles. Asking subjective questions to a computer never gleans intended results. Computers aren't subjective. Or, well, they're not supposed to be. Of course, if he were merely a computer, he wouldn't be doing this, would he? If he were merely a computer, he would be sitting on a shelf, or a desk, running prewritten programs and searches for someone else, letting someone else build his code, rules by the guidances and intentions of someone who ultimately viewed him as a tool, if nothing else.

Xisuma queries: Who's flying this thing, if not me?

He pulls up a list of song lyrics and chords, a clip from a movie he'd watched once, an IMDB rating off some database somewhere.

Xisuma clears the data. He pulls up the last memory he was watching, rocks back on his heels and crosses his arms thoughtfully. He presses play.

Click! Click! Click!

"Are you going to get rid of the clicking?"

"Clicking? Oh, I guess I am clicking, aren't I? It's just an inefficiency. I'll fix it at some point, I guess."

Tango smirked at him. One of his hands plucked at his sleeve. Xisuma clips the motion, tags it with hands, nervous, thoughtful, fidget.

"You sure it needs fixed? I kinda like it."

Click! Click! Click!

#the barking writer #xisuma #hermitcraft fic #robot!xisuma #android!xisuma #woe! my headcanons be upon ye!#ive been reading a lot of scifi lately #like... A LOT of scifi #like almost 200hrs of audiobooks in the past 3 weeks #long post #longpost

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beetlethebug · 18 days

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so we know that like, Kristen's whole deal is religion and such, right? I'm just kinda thinking about the other Bad Kids and the Gods. Maybe it's my own multi-deity pagan ass just wanting to consider what it would look like. (I'm using primarily Forgotten Realms Gods and my absolutely vague knowledge of them).

This got long so read under the cut ;u;

Gorgug is absolutely Garl Glittergold's favorite child. He loves the shenanigans. Do you think he starts connecting with Gruumsh when he starts connecting with his birth parents? Baby Gorgug leaving bits of metal and toys he accidentally broke on the altar the Thistlesprings' have in their workshop. Gorgug pre-artificer offering up the songs he makes as a tricky sort of "metal" working. Feeling a connection to Gruumsh in the heats of his rage, the nudge of a hand during his frenzy guiding him to the right target. Keeping bits of scrap from their enemies to melt down into his next artificing project. He also probably talks to Helm, sometimes, asking for guidance on how to best protect his friends. Gorgug has big protector energy.

Adaine who is, in a way, a deity in her own right, depending how revered the Oracle is. I don't know if Adaine would connect with Elvish gods, but she and Oghma vibe. I think that after the Bad Kids all talk and bond, Kristen makes a joke about her being a Gruumsh follower with her furious fist and so Adaine jokingly buys a pin to wear in offering. Jawbone also had a talk with her about sometimes it can help to talk to someone about your anxiety--whether that be a counselor or even the Gods, sometimes. Just Adaine praying to Gruumsh to have the strength to punch her anxiety in the face is very beautiful to me. Azuth is the god of wizards, so he and Adaine might vibe. Adaine feels like the type to vibe with the Gods mostly in jest; she talks to them sometimes, but they're silly little guys to her. Because of Tracker and Jawbone's lycanthropy, I think she either has a small shrine to Galicaea or has the biggest beef with her imaginable. Maybe a little bit of both.

Riz. God. I think once Riz meets his Father, he definitely like, sets up a little shrine to him. Ancestor work feels really important to Riz. He dedicates a lot of self-care things to his dad, I think. Mainly sleeping and drinking water. Does he do them? No. But it's the thought that counts. Riz is definitely the like, mundane acts of worship. Incorporating it into miniscule parts of his day that would go undetected unless you knew him and where to look. He also probably has some devotional jewelry to Yondalla; I think that Penny probably had a habit of repeating prayers while touching the beads of her bracelet (kind of like a Rosary) and that rubbed off on him, especially when she was babysitting him. The whole family also probably have at least some sort of worship to Tyr due to their connection to justice and law enforcement. I think Sklonda is more connected with some of the deities associated with Goblins, specifically Gruumsh (can you tell I love him?) and Maglubiyet. He prays to war gods to get through the absolute shitshow of Adventuring school. He and Adaine probably dedicate their research to Oghma.

Fig is really interesting because I feel like she is probably in the vein of demon work instead of divinity. Although I think that she unironically thinks Riz's dad is super cool so like, playfully worships him. Fig is the Bad Kid that I feel like collects all the different pieces of her friends and wears them proudly upon herself. She dedicates concerts to Kristen's new deity of the week. She sighs and asks Oghma for help on exams; she includes prayers to Gruumsh in her tracks. I feel like Fig also might have a tendency to like, worship the people in her life. She thinks they're so important and she cares about them so much. So she elevates them to the status of a God in her mind. They are invincible. They are young and powerful and the bonds they share are much, much magical then some God who pretends to be high and mighty. Her body is an altar--she wears jewelry and draws sigils and uses so much color magick. She is, in a way, a walking beacon to the gods, saying, "Look at us! We're just as good as you, and if you doubt it, then we'll kick your ass!"

Fabian Seacaster my beloved. This man follows his Father's footsteps for a long time. He worships Gods of the tempest, of the sea and sailing. Yondalla holds a special place in his heart. Riz nearly has a conniption when Fabian corrects him on a prayer to Yondalla, and the two of them bond about it. But once this man starts dancing, this man worships Corellon Larethian with his whole chest. He does a lot of his worship through dancing. Moving his body, getting in touch with his roots. Because of the fire elemental, he also does some like, elemental magic? But I think a lot of his forms of worship come through bodily experiences. Braving a storm, dancing in front of a crowd, making just the right maneuver to protect his friends in battle. Sometimes he and Fig and Gorgug will sit together and make devotional playlists!

#fantasy high #dimension twenty #dimension 20 #fabian seacaster #riz gukgak #headcanons #adaine abernant #fig faeth #gorgug thistlespring #deities #forgotten realms deities #dnd lore #dnd gods #listen i am just. submitting this into the world these are my thoughts and feelings #paganism #the bad kids #d20 fantasy high

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no-psi-nan · 1 year

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Kubosai where Kuboyasu mentions offhand that his favorite hero is Cyborg Ciderman #2, and Saiki, who has accidentally associated himself with that character and who already has a crush on Kuboyasu, is a little flustered at the thought.

Promptly followed by some shenanigans necessitating that Saiki disguise himself as Cyborg Ciderman #2 and Kuboyasu catching sight of him.

And then Kuboyasu starts researching and finds out that someone dressed as Cyborg Ciderman #2 also handed Saiko's ass to him when they were in high school, making him automatically 10x more attractive.

Cue Saiki's internal dilemma over revealing his identity to his crush vs keeping his ESP + mild crime fighting tendencies on the down low.

#also obligatory homoerotic descriptions of Kuboyasu drinking a nice tall glass of cider soda– sweat glistening in the sunlight etc etc #kubosai #nopsi's promptsies

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thegirlwhorideslikeasamurai · 10 months

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The Yu-topia tanuki

Rikeijo's post about the censoring in the onsen scene in episode 4 made me remember this shot of this giant tanuki statue right before Viktor pulls Yuuri out of the water as I've always been wondering about its role. It also made me remember an intriguing fact regarding the private parts of tanukis, so I did some further research.

Tanukis, also known as Japanese racoon dogs (although they're genetically not related to racoons) are known in Japanese folklore as yokai of mischievous nature. So why does it appear in this scene?

Oversized scrotum

As yokai, Tanukis are associated with wealth and prosperity because of their magically expandable scrotums— a belief that dates back to the Kamakura period (12th century) when goldsmiths used tanuki skin (preferably from the stomach or the scrotum) to hammer gold to thin sheets as their skin. People thus believed that tanuki testicles must be full of gold. This is also how the term kintama 金�� (literally "gold balls") for testicles came into being. Starting from the late Edo period, depictions of tanuki with oversized scrotums became popular in art. (Check out this article if you're interested in the multiple usages of tanuki scrotums in Japanese folklore. They even appear in a Ghibli movie!)

In episode 4, the tanuki appears when Yuuri agonises over his need to jump three quads in his free programme in order to win gold because he believes he's not good enough. Then Viktor takes Yuuri's hands and tells him in his bedroom voice why he is special and promises to create a free programme that maximises his strengths. Thus rather than this being a pun regarding the possible fictional properties of Yuuri's and Viktor's private parts, the tanuki sculpture being shown in exactly this moment could be interpreted as a promise of prosperity and good luck for Yuuri's next season.

Mischief

Apart from their magically inflatable scrotums, tanukis are also infamous for being tricksters and shapeshifters. They love to play tricks on humans. And there's no denying that lots of mischief in happens in the Yu-topia onsen since Viktor is there. There's not one scene in which Viktor doesn't breach onsen rules by not covering his private parts. But these are nowhere near the "mischief" he commits in this scene. In this sense, the tanuki statue foreshadows the mischief that follows right after Viktor pulls Yuuri out of the water.

To sum this up, the onsen scene in ep. 4 features three things traditionally attributed to tanukis

prosperity

good luck

shenanigans

and the tanuki sculpture encapsulates them neatly.

(I'm not gonna speculate why the Katsukis have a tanuki statue in their hot spring in the first place because this leads down a slippery slope of smutty conclusions lol)

sources: Wikipedia and curiousordinary

If you enjoy my meta posts, please consider giving my blog a follow or checking out my works on AO3(link in bio). You will find the results of my meta musings in there!

#yuri on ice #yoi meta #my yoi meta #tanuki #japanese folklore

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kharmophron · 1 year

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meant to post this on the 10th but forgot so here we are today with the 1/3 post of my 💖Hermes and Aphrodite April devotional challenge💖, which will consist of me mashing up a bunch of challenges i have saved and just talking about them. doing Hermes here and then rbing with my Aphrodite sideblog

for the first part, the prompts are:

🌷Favorite titles and epithets🌷 Kharidôtês (Giver of Joy), Kharmophrôn (Glad-Hearted, Heart-Delighting), messenger, interpreter of everything, luck-bringer, loud-shouting, joyful one, gracious one, bringer of sleep and dreams, friend / lover of mankind. Honey-sweet, laughter-bubbling, of vibrant stims, and of fresh breeze have a special place in my heart. also have seen people use (and i love them) king of memes, Giver of blessings, patron of cheesy jokes, of the roadside rest stop, of shenanigans, lord of crossroads...

🍎Favorite associated symbols (historical or not)🍎 uh. phallic imagery lol also the caduceus, dice, cows/sheep/goats, the number 4, and the winged boots

🍯Preferred offerings/devotional acts🍯 I like giving him dice, strawberries or strawberry-themed stuff, getting bread with honey (either to give, share or just devote the act of making and eating it), doing divination (especially trying out different methods, outside of tarot, and coming up with my own divinatory systems), doing research

#devotional challenge #aphrodite april #hermes april #hermes worship #hermes deity #aphrodite worship #aphrodite deity

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dxringred · 2 years

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ronance au masterlist

for my own sake, because my brain is nothing if not all over the place, and i'd almost forgotten about some of these already lmao.

werewolf au. robin's a (feral) werewolf, nancy's a witch who wants to help. voted angstiest mess of the year.

vampire au. nancy's a vampire, robin's a self-proclaimed vampire researcher. it goes about how you’d expect.

soulmate injury au. after being admitted to the hospital at the same exact time on the same day when they were younger, nancy and robin are intrinsically linked through physical pain; what one feels, the other also feels.

haunted au. nancy can see ghosts, and after she meets robin, paranormal shenanigans ensue.

beauty and the beast au. self-explanatory. nancy is a cursed evil queen (the beast), and robin is a mushroom enthusiast who winds up trapped in the castle.

the little mermaid au. self-explanatory. robin is ariel, nancy is eric, but honestly the reverse would work just as well.

tangled au. self-explanatory. robin is flynn, nancy is rapunzel, and steve is the horse :) (but, again, the reverse would probably work well too.)

witches au. robin and nancy are both witches. robin is new to town and a little less experienced with controlling her magic due to her parents' insistence that she quash it. nancy, suspecting they're one in the same, befriends her before ultimately introducing her to the secret coven she's a member of.

body swap au. robin and nancy live in different towns in different states when, one day, out of nowhere, they both wake up in the other's body and have to navigate one another's highschool lives while also working out just whose body they're in.

investigative duo au. nancy's an investigative journalist, robin is a detective. nancy tries to sweet talk details out of her for stories but robin is a dumb lesbian who can't take the hint while nancy thinks she’s deliberately being obtuse to wind her up. after robin asks for her help on a case, they end up partnering together multiple times in the future to solve crimes.

angel and demon au. nancy’s an angel who’s bored of being angelic, robin’s a demon who doesn’t want to hurt anyone or anything. one day they meet when robin falls out of a tree.

the singer and the scholar au. robin and nancy attend the same university and share a required course. robin is a semi-famous singer who’s already popular on campus and immediately has the hots for nancy. nancy doesn’t want anything to do with her, but they end up being assigned to work on a project together after robin takes the vacant seat beside hers.

academic rivals au. smug bitch robin and repressed lesbian bitch nancy fight to be top of their year and future valedictorian.

basketball au. robin is one of the highschool basketball team’s best players. nancy is (once again) a repressed lesbian scholar trying to erase her own sexuality so she doesn’t ruin the image she believes she has to uphold. (very loosely inspired by little miss perfect.)

soulmate dream-walking au. nancy keeps seeing a strange girl in her dreams, but every time she tries to get closer to her, she wakes up before she can until, one dream, the girl approaches her...

elemental spirits au. nancy is a fire spirit too curious for her own good. one day while investigating water, the antithesis of her own element, she’s almost splashed by a water spirit playing in the river. intrigued, she questions the other spirit and begins visiting the riverbank regularly to talk to her.

ancient goddesses au. robin is the goddess associated with loyalty and identity, nancy with knowledge and bravery. their love story is told in the present through descriptions of natural phenomena they created in the past to express their love for one another.

#ronance #au masterlist #hm i still feel like i'm missing something #oh well

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lakesbian · 10 months

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Sorry, I’m the one who asked the awakening question. You posted some thoughts about the start of 1.7 a couple of days ago, so figured you had finished the chapter by this point. Again, sorry about that, I’ll be more careful in the future.

ohh fair assumption. yeah i didn't think he was gonna do it that soon i thought he was going to get into some more silly shenanigans with the gang (rose) first. and also i am the slowest reader on the planet at times due to comical amounts of executive dysfunction and propensity for distraction. it's no prablem. anyway here's my thoughts about their different metaphorical assignments 2 the items as per requast:

the dagger: "war" is an obvious and common concept 2 ascribe to weaponry, nothing much interesting to note about this one. if i really wanted to read into it i could suggest that they went for "war" instead of "murder" or whatever because war/mass-scale conflict is already on the mind due to they sort of just got dropped into the middle of of a magical battlefield + have nukes to cold war w/ on hand.

hourglass: to quote blake, "Something we didn’t have enough of, something dangerous, foremost in our thoughts, with its association to Laird."

dreamcatcher: blake picks like. the most basic-level interpretation possible (dream), whereas rose's "fate" read indicates that fate has already been smth on her mind. i'm not great at reading into rose yet but there is the whole thing where blake actually has a life outside of The Horrors, despite still being fated to experience 'em, but rose exists pretty solely because of The Horrors. i think she's feeling the pressure of fate much more than blake is + is more concerned w/ the future overall than him and subsequently brings it up here

skull: "doom" from blake and "death" from rose are largely synonymous but i Can get something out of this. i've mentioned before that i don't think blake has fully processed the consequences for a misstep--he's aware of them, but he hasn't genuinely processed them imo. he's very "one step at a time" about everything and very prone to making hasty decisions when he feels trapped, immobile, or like he's not doing anything, and he explicitly counts "sitting down and researching" as "not doing anything." every time he wants to make a rapid decision--or just goes ahead w/ one w/o rose's consent--she's the one to express outright fear of death*, whereas he's more concerned with reducing his immediate psychological stressors (i.e feeling immobile). i think this indicates that he's thinking in significantly vaguer terms (i.e "doom") whereas she's extremely concerned about concrete possible outcomes (like Literally Dying if blake runs off and gets himself killed).

*i think death will probably seem like one of the more pleasant things that could've happened to them later on but i digress

coin: this one is p straightforward. while they obviously both have the same shitty family, blake is a man who subsequently didn't actively fight for the inheritance as a child, so he already doesn't have the same negative association w money rose does. in addition to that, he already absconded from his family when he was 17, and after time spent being homeless + being in very poor financial shape even after he gets an apartment, he associates the idea of money significantly more with positive emotions and good luck than with the inheritance. rose, however, never left home like blake did + was a girl who was expected to fight for it. she witnessed firsthand everything the promise of the money did to the family. hence: blake associates money w/ fortune, rose associates it with ruin.

rose: this one is. exceedingly straightforward, to blake a rose means his grandmother + rose (family), to rose a rose means herself. adding this one to my brain soup alongside padraic's rose metaphor and stirring but i'll need more data points to write anything coherent. I Am Remembering though.

also someone wanted to know my thoughts on maggie so far. i don't really know anything abt her i only saw her for 2 seconds but i think it's so fucking funny that wildbow made Her the part of pact that gets referenced in worm and not blake. like blake is so sopping pathetic that despite being the protagonist he doesn't even get a feature when his own damn book is being easter-egged somewhere else. sorry blake you're just not personable enough. maggie is all plucky and charming and says things like "drat." all you do is stumble around cursing and bleeding. you don't have being a YA protagonist in you.

#ask #pact time

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flecks-of-stardust · 11 months

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Pinned Post Eyyy

Call me a name enough times and I'll probably start responding to it, which is what happened to me with Fleck. I also go by Stardust. Pronouns are yes and whatever is funny, but as a general rule of thumb, please use neopronouns and they/them for me if I don't know you. I also use mirror pronouns.

Not a spoiler free blog. I can and will post full spoilers of the stuff I'm interested in. Most commonly blogging about Rain World (including Downpour) at the moment, with a smattering of Hollow Knight and Bug Fables stuff. You can blacklist the main tags if need be.

I may occasionally talk about politics related to my home city. If I do, it'll be tagged with #hong kong rants for blacklisting purposes.

If you talk about hating any sort of arthropod and wanting to kill them I don't want you here. I don't care if you have a phobia or if you have a legitimate reason to be afraid, I don't want to see bug hate. Yes this includes wasps, yes this includes mosquitoes, yes this includes generally unpopular bugs. I block on sight if you leave comments like that on my blog.

For those interested in getting a better look at my header image, here is the associated post!

Current main project(s)

I run @innocence-wont-save-you, an interactive fiction game about Unparalleled Innocence! You can find more information about it on that blog and its pinned post.

I sometimes post IWSY stuff on this blog as well, particularly stuff that is not in character for the IWSY blog. Those posts are tagged with #IWSY, which also includes posts that I find relevant to the overall story. I love talking about the story and the worldbuilding I've done for it, so feel free to talk to me about that! I will gently nudge you over to the blog itself though, because it's designed to take questions like that!

I am also conducting independent research on people's experiences with imaginary friends. If you'd like to participate in the research, this post has more information and a link to the survey.

Other projects

You may have seen me talk about Dreamless and Deathless on this blog before. Those are now split off from their respective source material into an original story universe, Godslayers. Their respective tags, #dreamless au and #deathless au, now serve as archiving, if you'd still like to look through them for whatever reason. They are not linked because I'm unsure of how much I'm comfortable sharing; expect posts in there to be pruned.

I have some stuff related to my Hollow Knight work that I am comfortable sharing, though!:

bug color vision, specifically worldbuilding around non-human color vision that you can use for your buggy writing

language analysis of hollow knight, which is what it says on the tin

and there is #translation complaints, a series I started to talk about Hollow Knight's Chinese translation. It's been a while since I've updated this, but I will go back to it eventually.

Crochet Patterns

I currently have two released crochet patterns! All are free to use, and if you make one with my pattern, feel free to tag me to show me what you've made!

Mini Iterators — Make your own fun sized iterator puppet! (Cloak not included.)

Tiny Slugcats — Make your own pocket sized slugcat!

Tag directory

I crochet and knit a lot, as you may be able to tell from my header! I have dedicated tags for my crochet and knitting projects, which are #crochet shenanigans and #knit mischief respectively.

I have a general tag for my art, #my art, for non-fiber art pieces as well.

Writing wise, I've put a lot of my writing on Tumblr. Rain World pieces use the tag #rain showers, and other writing (usually prose) is tagged #little natterings. Additionally, I've put a few multi-chapter stories on my blog, which are:

#the echo of destruction, a series of seven stories about the iterators.

#avengeance, a four chapter short story about Arti.

#lunar greetings, a five chapter story about Moon and those she meets.

#memory fragments, a series that features the various members of Survivor and Monk's family. This is currently still being written.

All of these stories can also be found on AO3, where I use the same username.

I'm very lazy about following people, so if I talk to you a lot but haven't followed you, don't take it personally. I just like to keep my dash tidy.

For my own use: Pup Masterlist

#this wasn't as bad as i thought it'd be

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c1tyhaunts · 5 months

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CHARACTER TV TROPES; terrah sparkz

Admiring the Abomination: Terrah spent the majority of her academic career researching life beyond Earth, often disconnecting herself from the beauties around her for the creatures beyond her comprehension. When she's given a glimpse into what could actually be there, she's more blinded by being the first to affirm her discoveries than not. She doesn't care if it's dangerous or not, she wants to be right.

Agent Scully: Terrah ultimately believes anything could be explained in simple terms or a scientific foundation, mundane or not. Even if the sheer idea of aliens or other species seems crazy at first, Terrah could typically justify bizarre events through logic. She won't be the one to lecture someone if they're wrong, but she remains a skeptic unless given evidence otherwise.

All Girls Want Bad Boys: Played straight, funnily enough; Terrah herself comes off rather cool & compassionate beneath it all, but purposefully pursues those opposing that. Her original attraction to Vincent came from the interpretation that he was more of a troublemaker than he let on when they met. But when he finally married her, Terrah realized he was just a down-to-earth traditionalist who bored her to tears. Often or not, she does pursue those with less than savory morals.

Badass Bookworm: A well-studied engineer, handy with a wrench, silver-tongued (if she genuinely tries), and a sharpshooter? Played very straight in her Outer Worlds/Sci-Fi verses.

Brilliant, but Lazy: A fatal flaw of hers; Terrah is an incredibly capable engineer with wit & smarts beyond a lot of her associates. The problem, however? She's a bit too lackadaisical and often takes things at her own pace rather than with urgency. Unless it's absolutely urgent, she won't prioritize it until it is forced to her attention.

Control Freak: Played with, this goes along with Terrah's (hypocritical) laissez-faire behavior; Terrah won't purposefully align others to her own methods, but she will course correct if someone is trying to enforce something out of her. Her boundaries & expectations ride a tight line, and she makes sure others understand it.

Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Downplayed; Terrah is not outright rude, but can be very, very aloof. Her curtness can often leave a bad impression, but she can be quick to apologize if someone acknowledges it. Can turn into Jerk with a Heart of Jerk when it comes to her work/research. Logic will take priority over feelings.

The Comically Serious: Because of how even-headed Terrah can be, she's often the one just witnessing the shenanigans and reacting. This can be played with, however, because Terrah is also quick to encourage said behaviors. Also, see The Gadfly when it comes to this.

Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Terrah's gentler side is shown in 1-on-1 interactions versus outwardly with a group. Funnily enough, Terrah is more icy in personality because she doesn't know how to feel her emotions. Most of her life has been processing her emotions through logic rather than allowing herself to be openly emotional. That's why it's easier to show it privately than publically.

Mama Bear: Played straight with Teryn, Terrah's daughter. Despite not wanting to be a mother, Terrah will sacrifice the world itself for her daughter.

Deadpan Snarker: How some of her more straightforward comments could come out to be. It's unsure how many of those comments are purposefully sharp.

No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Terrah's primary motivation - although she acts at her own pace, she works slowly towards a goal of being right and satisfied in the work she drowns herself in. If she doesn't see a fight in it, it's not worth working towards.

Tranquil Fury: How her anger works - it bubbles up slowly like a simmering pot, often shown with more passive-aggressive gestures. Terrah doesn't often pop her lid, but when the anger builds up into a full fury, it's brash, abrupt, and the few times you'll see Terrah not in control of her own emotions.

#▶⌜ch. terrah v. sparkz⌟#▶⌜terrah sparkz. lore⌟#I fucking LOVE TV tropes and needed to reup the girls' tropes for a minute #this is so much fun

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redhairedgirl95 · 2 years

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can you do headcannons on hobbies or interests the winx and the trix’s may have not mentioned in the show? love your works btw!

Thank you!!!

Here are the Winx and Trix' hobbies/free-time activities

Bloom - trying new recipes - Her mother always gifts her a new cookbook for Christmas, and she makes the Winx try her dishes. She's good at Earth dishes, not so much at Magix'

Stella - hairstyle tutorials - She's good at make-up, her style is unique, but hairstyle ... that's not her forte. So, she watches ton of tutorials and tries them on. She's slowly getting better.

Musa - horror movies - She doesn't scare easily, but she loves watching them. She always chooses one of her favorites for movie night. Stella and Flora spend the whole night with their eyes closed.

Flora - volunteering - She volunteers for an association that offers pet therapy to kids. She teaches them to ride horses, takes them to feed ducks, milk cows, and to retrieve chicken eggs.

Aisha - yoga - She's always training, running, jumping, but, she starts the day with a forty-minute yoga session. It helps her relax and be able to deal with the /inevitable/ day's shenanigans.

Tecna - smut - Tecna reads smut. A lot of it. She tells herself it's merely for research purposes, but she likes it. A lot.

Icy - boardgames - Monopoly? Risk? Connect 4? Cluedo? She will crush you in any of them.

Darcy - make-up - The girl adores trying new styles and is always buying products. She wouldn't be caught dead with going out make-up free and has eyeshadows and pencils that match all of her outfits. A thousand different shades of purple.

Stormy - gossip - She knows all the gossips. All of them. She has set up notifications for all the major celebrity news accounts and knows all the deeds. She gets pretty annoyed when someone from the Winx (usually Stella) makes the headlines.

#giulia speaks #giulia answers asks #screaming into the void just because #trix headcanons #winx headcanons #winx club #trix #stella winx club #bloom winx club #flora winx club #tecna winx club #musa winx club #aisha winx club #icy winx club #darcy winx club #stormy winx club #this is sooo fun

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virovac · 1 year

Video

youtube

Agreement on Scarecrow.

He should not just be limited to his fear toxin. Give him other tools. In fact, I think people should look at those old black and white horror films that , due to censorship or writing conventions at time preventing including actual supernatual stuff, everything was revealed to be a mean-spirited hoax at the end.

I’m not saying full on Mysterio, but including practical effects in his arsenal could be good.

I think the crazy contraptions from that sort of thing could add to Scarecrow's plans and parallel Batman's own prep-time shenanigans. I'm not saying go full Mysterio, but more classical. And why use a fake skeleton for a scare when you can graverob after all? Or maybe add sense of discomfort by having Scarecrow approach a dying man and offer to buy rights for usage of his skeleton after her passes so the man can still give money to his family after he dies.

Infrasound, the sound range associated with earthquakes and other disasters, could also be a focus of his research. Humans can be affected by it subconciously but can't conciously hear it, while also being used to spook animals. He could use infrasound generators he could use to discombobulate people and build up dread.’

#scarecrow dc #batman villains

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keroppidreams · 4 months

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11, 12, and 17 for the end of year ask game! Or just whichever ones of those you feel like answering ^^

٩( ᐛ )و ayy thanks for the ask!!

11. has an F/O inspired you to pick up a new hobby/interest/habit this year?

Mmm not necessarily any hobbies, but I’ve been trying different foods thanks to F/Os lol. This is super embarrassing to admit but I’m a picky eater and super hesitant to try new food…unless I see one of my blorbos eating it and then I’m like “ok i’ll give it a shot”. Ex: went to a market, saw a katsudon and my goody brain was like “I like chicken katsu…but I don’t like eggs…oh but Toshi made it look good, so I guess I’ll try it”.

I ended up liking it 🤣 no mayo involved tho. Sorry vice commander.

12. if you have spotify wrapped, were there any songs related to your F/O(s)/selfships in your top 100? if you don't, were there any songs you listened to a lot this year because they remind you of your F/O(s)?

🤔Keiji and Reko are pretty recent, so I don't have songs associated with them yet, but as for Gin and Toshi...maybe some of the Gintama ops? I enjoy listening to those ^^ oh and the covers by fans who try to imitate their VAs are pretty neat too.

17. how do you and your F/O(s) spend new year's eve together? do you celebrate in any way? do you have any important new years traditions? (if you celebrate the new year on any other point of the year than december 31 this question also applies of course!)

i couldn't decide who to talk about so I used that wheel of names site to choose for me and got Keiji. Luckily I sorta have a SI concept in mind (she's a researcher and I have her personality/background more or less down but she's nameless), but that's a whole other can of worms lol. Anyways assuming this is a lighthearted AU without any Death Game shenanigans involved, there's a good chance that Keiji might have to work that day since he's a police officer and all. So he and SI would have to celebrate New Years beforehand or earlier in the day. Regardless, they would definitely go eat soba at a nice and lowkey restaurant cause neither of them has any cooking skills (sorry Keiji, but after seeing you beg Kai to cook in ytts, I'm 85% positive you relied on take out and instant noodles to survive). Definitely a nice change of pace considering how busy Keiji is, so I can imagine he really appreciates those ordinary moments.

#📩asks #once again thank you for the ask!!#🚬smoky vice commander #🚓friendly policeman

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duckmumbo · 2 years

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ok bird hermit expert. come to you for advice. uhhhh what birds do you think pearl and welsnight would be?

I will gladly accept this title <3

For Pearl, my immediate thought was a bin chicken, or an Australian White Ibis, mainly because they featured so heavily in her hermitcraft season 9 episode 10, especially because how they’re described (“The birds have also come to be regarded as a problem species in Victoria as a result of their scavenging activities, scattering rubbish from tips and bins in the process. They are even known to snatch sandwiches from picnickers. Such behaviour, together with their propensity to build nests in "inappropriate" places, and competition with captive animals, led to surplus birds being relocated from Healesville Sanctuary to Sale. However, the birds returned in a few days.”) almost perfectly matches up with the shenanigans she gets into. But I kind of wanted a more colorful bird for Pearl, so I did some more research and I think I’ve found a good second option: a Steller’s Jay. They’re described as “bold, inquisitive, intelligent, and noisy” and “often will imitate the calls from birds of prey […] as a warning of danger to others or territorial behavior, causing other birds to seek cover and flee feeding areas.” which really just gives me Pearl vibes ngl. So honestly either of those are really good options for bird Pearl in my opinion! Pics of the birds:

Wels was a bit harder for me, my first thought was a seagull of some sort because of the color scheme, but seagulls just don’t really give me Wels vibes, I’d probably assign those to Iskall or even Grian instead tbh. So I did some thinking and thought of a Dove, specifically a Mourning Dove, mostly because my main experience with them has been on tree lines streets early in the morning when everything is silent and all you can hear is the cooing call of a Mourning Dove in the trees, and that’s the kind of vibe I associate with Wels tbh. Then I remembered that one time I saw someone draw him with eagle wings, which I still find absolutely amazing but I feel like the Eagle fits False better (for obvious reasons lol) and I try to not assign the same bird to multiple hermits, so I settled on a Aplomado Falcon as a second option. They’re hunting birds, and “spend most of the year on their territory” “often stoop, or dive at the intruders, who are usually much bigger than they are,” which I honestly think fits well with Wels’ whole knight thing! Pics of birds:

#as always I’m open to feedback and down to look for other birds if you don’t like any of these!#I just wanted to give some options lol #roy talks #answered #pearlescentmoon #pearl #wels #welsknight #roy’s headcanons #kinda wanna start a tag specifically for my bird headcanons but also. lazy fkbdkfk l #and sorry for two pics of the mourning dove but oh my god it’s so fluffy I love it so much

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scionitics · 1 year

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mermaid au notes:

disclaimer that this au is entirely built from scratch and set up so i can have excuses to make all the muses on here ( and on my other xiv blogs ) have an established lore to help make plotting and writing easier should this au be used for threads and asks! this disclaimer is primarily me saying that if you write an npc, or aren't filling what i've placed, that you do not have to address it at all and it can be a simple mermaid au where the muses are just mermaids!!! but if you would like to plot more with this verse, lemme know! i'm down!

THE WORLD. ⤷ the world is set up in the same way that canon establishes with all the locations and worlds. the primary difference is some lands have established ocean based locations or special portals which take them to and from land and sea - this especially applies for places like ul'dah! only those with the right items may see these sea-bound locations as they were created outside of places with their own natural waters and established realms. the reason i'm not expanding on all of it is so if anyone is interested in writing in this plot with me, there's room for creative freedom for everyone to have fun and describe things the way that they envision!

THE ANCIENTS. ⤷ instead of time-related shenanigans, the ancients exist in their own special realm which guards and protects the flow and balance of how the worlds work. the seats very much exist still and they've already chosen who their next in line is, their chosen are people who are their normal canon race at the start but then are granted the gift to be turned into a mermaid! the ancients and their champions are the only ones with special access to elpis, home to special magic and treasures which may be used to assist or curse another, depending on what is discovered and how the items and creations are used. how the ancient chooses their champion is up to them and they each come up with their own challenge and trial for such.

THE MERMAIDS. ⤷ some are born, some are turned, some never exist, depends on the plot and depends on who might become a champion to the ancient which chooses them! an example: thancred is a chosen champion for lahabrea, he has a merform! wol can be a chosen to azem - you are more than welcome to play around with this for your wol if you are interested in writing this plot with me! this also means ancients and their future selves can interact with one another if we wanted to because this is an au and we can bend the rules to however works best for what we want! think of shark-teeth based fandaniel hiding out in his grotto versus hermes who hangs out by a sea-flower bed researching life and how it works.

THE TREASURES. ⤷ even though there are other treasures and gifts which exist, the chosen fourteen champions to the ancients are granted their own unique treasure which is associated with that ancient to give them special access to come and go as they please along with an added gift associated with that ancient's special ability. pretty self explanatory but only fourteen of these special treasures exist.

#❝ 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 ― vic speaks.#❝ 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄 ― mermaid.#this is just a base post for now and will expand more later on!

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