Monody

Space nerd. May also exist beyond the concept of space.ζ-friendly. They/them.

[monody-monody]

[the-cimmerians]

in the tags: you have been granted the ability to bring back three (but only three) cancelled shows for at least one more season. What do you choose?

[theroguefeminist]

all of us have been unlearning problematic things - it’s really malicious and in bad faith to purposefully dig up old posts by someone that do not reflect their current opinions and attack them over it out of context

[phaedra-theexhausted]

Go get rid of your old terrible posts then. If I eat something I don’t keep the wrapper around. I get rid of it.

[theroguefeminist]

I have nearly 50,000 posts on my Tumblr blog which I have been running since 2011. It is literally impossible for me to sift through all of that for every single “problematic” post just for fear of some jerk dredging up something I said eight years ago.

And honestly? I shouldn’t anyway. You can literally make the opposite argument: that it’s wrong to hide your past. If we all keep pretending that ideological purity is possible and erasing the journeys we’ve gone though to learn from mistakes and become better, more educated people I feel like that does more harm than good.

Anyway, your attitude is victim blaming. We should not normalize a culture of fear where everyone is desperate to hide their flaws because someone might start a harassment campaign against them. The solution is ending that culture, not saddling people with the burden of dealing with it.

[astrodidact]

[intheheartofman]

[wonderwanda]

I reblogged this yesterday, but I want to reblog it again. Diabetic ketoacidosis turns your blood acidic and will essentially burn you from the inside out.

The stories you hear of people dying from rationing, this is what happens to their body.

Affordable insulin isn’t just a right, it’s a necessity.

No one should have to die like that when it’s preventable with access to proper medication.

[batcii-archive-deactivated20210]

people in fanfiction are so good at identifying v specific smells. I literally struggle to identify vanilla when I’m sniffing a candle labelled “VANILLA” how are these kids getting woodsmoke, rain, mint, and a whiff of byronic despair from a fuckin tshirt

[archouai]

Once I read a fic where they were like “he tasted like” and I’m expecting the typical formula (1 cooking ingredient + 1 natural phenomenon + “something uniquely [character name]”) but instead they said “he tasted like mouth” and it was one of the greatest fic moments of my life

[nicetobealive-deactivated201710]

click and drag to find out what your shitty fanfiction kiss tastes like

[nerdgul]

*if ur on moble screenshot it

[bucketofdeltav]

IT DOESN’T TASTE LIKE THAT. it tastes like something that makes you think of that.

This is the goddamn overliteralism curse again.

No people are not literally growling like animals when they talk, no kisses do not literally taste like thunderstorms, no someone touching you gently does not literally have hands made of velvet, grow an imagination or get off AO3.

[Old person yells at cloud voice].

[monody-monody]

As someone who…

1: is autistic

2: cannot smell flowers

and 3: doesn't kiss

…I think I should be excused for never realizing this was vague metaphor and not just everyone once again having different sensory experiences from me.

[gracklesong]

Kinda surreal to see people explain WHY Tumblr is implementing age verification in the UK and Brazil just to see responders argue that it's still all Tumblr's fault for complying. They don't want to imagine that this is anything but a bad UI choice that can be turned around by yelling at social media employees. "What's the government got to do with fascism?", or something like that

[rosstmcd]

Tumblr putting in age verification in places where age verification is now legally required: not much they can do to avoid this. Like, Meta could probably fight it with some chance of success if they wanted to, but Tumblr doesn't have anything like the clout required.

Tumblr moderation aggressively and disproportionately flagging posts by or depicting trans people and people of color as "mature" no matter what the content is? Very much their fault and they should yelled at about it until they are finally browbeaten into fixing it, or the end of time, whichever comes first.

[lifesgrandparade]

I want you guys to all start making a bigger stink about Tumblr's Age Verification Horseshit.

[lifesgrandparade]

Like they tried to change Reblogs and people rightfully got up in arms, this is a LOT worse. In order to have access to any sort of thing dubbed mature, and We haveALL seen what they think is mature, Everything from a black and white photo of a black woman's arm, to posts about IUD recalls, to a nude painted by a 17th century artist, to anything involving the word Trans; you have to send your personal information to a third party site that WILL get hacked, and you will be doxxed. And they can say "Oh shit, well it wasn't us who sent your name address and gender identity to Moldovan teenagers, here's a couple extra minutes in the ball pit.

That's bad enough!!!!!!!! But the entire idea of needing permission from state authorities to access anything labeled mature by our friendly AI overlords is some fucking Boll shit. Die Gedenken Sind Frie baby. This is all a reaction to people getting uppity about their lowly lowly rights and is being propped up by the same bad actors tht have made life unlivable. Fuck that shit.

"Well it's only being rolled out in Brazil and UK" Yeah, to start. "Well they're being forced to do this by laws." YOu know it's always really funny when these tech giants (Or whatever you call owning tumblr dot com) get really antsy about laws considering they pick and choose which ones they abide by.

This is a breaking point and it's going to be very interesting to see how we proceed from here.

[teh-nos]

i get this now and it won't let me click through to any 'mature' blogs :(

[hylianengineer]

Where's the fucking. The form. The fucking form. Hang on, lemme find it.

Tumblr is a place to express yourself, discover yourself, and bond over the stuff you love. It's where your interests connect you with your

This! Please fill out this! Select "Feedback" and fill out the form! They won't necessarily be paying attention to us complaining in posts, but they will read these forms!

[lost-where-the-forest-would-grow]

I just got described as an "ad hating commie" by someone because I said a minute of youtube ads is unpleasant. fully spent 5 minutes arguing and defending youtube ads. insane stuff

[daovihi]

reblog if you are an ad hating commie

[monody-monody]

Definitely not me crying thinking about the Okami ending again and how it uses the narrative contrast of Amaterasu vs Shiranui to convey to the player that it isn't the power they wield that makes them worthy, but their actions towards others.

[monody-monody]

I know I've done this rant before, but like… The way the game starts off by setting you up as successor to the established hero Shiranui… And when Waka early on tells you you're a pale shadow of your former self, you start to realize the parallels between yourself and Susano forever trying to live up to the legacy of his ancestor. You press on and regain some of your power. Then you and Susano repeat the legend yourselves and slay Orochi, and it feels like confirmation that you've both earned your places as legends equal to the originals.

…Fast forward to arc 3 and the time travel incident. You meet Nagi and learn that he was never the hero legends claimed he was. In fact, Susano through his hero's journey became a much greater man than the one whose shadow he felt smothered by. And because of the existing parallels, you start thinking maybe it's the same for you. But no. Because then you see Shiranui in all her majesty, and you are awed. And you go "Oh shit. That's not just me. That's something far greater than I am.". Okami White Light Majesty plays. You look at the pure power and radiance and feel unworthy of it. Especially after you later get in over your head and Shiranui sacrifices herself to bail you out. Who are you? A knock-off who screwed everything up. You run around and get called a god, but the real Amaterasu died for your failure.

You face Yami. You are brought down to your lowest point, stripped of your power. You have nothing. But you get the Reset (Thank You version) scene where everyone you've helped along your journey prays for you. You never needed to be anything more than you are to help those in need. You did what you could. Okami White Light Majesty plays again, and you are transformed… into the spitting image of Shiranui. And this time, because it is something bestowed upon you, you feel, just barely… worthy. That brilliance, that radiance… is for you. Okami White Light Majesty is suddenly your theme.

[monody-monody]

Definitely not me crying thinking about the Okami ending again and how it uses the narrative contrast of Amaterasu vs Shiranui to convey to the player that it isn't the power they wield that makes them worthy, but their actions towards others.

[foldingfittedsheets]

This popped into my head and I hastily threw together a shitpost because I had to get it out.

[monody-monody]

<Is this a shorm?>

[the-punforgiven]

I'm just saying, if you're going to worldbuild magic being a "raw, primal force, akin to and interweaving with nature itself" you gotta explain to me why animals don't use it

[the-punforgiven]

I know the normal answer is "they just aren't smart enough for it" but idk I've seen enough media where a character uses a spell in a moment of brain-off panic ilI feel like animals could probably stumble into a spell or two like, accidentally

[the-punforgiven]

Also how funny would it be to see a completely normal regular bear cast magic missile outta nowhere

[the-punforgiven]

Also there is no way ravens wouldn't figure out spells, tbh

They're smart fuckin birds, I believe in them

Either through observing or just figuring shit out ravens could 100% learn how to cast spells I'm sure of it

[the-punforgiven]

Dogs can also cast Magic Missile but every time they do the projectile is shaped like a bone or a stick and they chase after it

[monody-monody]

Counterargument: Spells as we know them are a product of the raw magical energy being filtered through the lens of the human(/sapient) psyche. Animals can channel that same energy, but in their own distinct ways.

I don't want to see a bear casting human spells; I want to see bear magic be its own phenomenon just as incomprehensible to humans as human magic is to bears.

[fenrir-kin]

Ah, fuck, im gonna have to write this now

Prey magic evolved to be around evasion; short range teleports away when backed into a corner, for example

Predator magic evolved to either flat counter that (nullifying magic when they know they've GOT you) or follow it; maybe not also teleport, maybe a type of scrying, or a magical scent tracking, or something...

Corvids in general would have trickster magic, I think. Throwing voices, illusions to look like more of them, Detect Shiny Object

Some magic is learned by watching animals - like how humans learned to tap trees for sap bc we saw squirrels doing it? I think? - and some is primitive survival instinct, and then the smallest percentage is whatever order we've wrestled magic into to cast formal spells

I think a bears spells would be 'safe and warm' during harsh winter hibernation, and 'look big and scary!!' and like @monody-monody said, they still wouldn't be recognisable to humans

Ok its 1am I need to sleep but I think tomorrow I might have to write

[monody-monody]

The part about humans learning a lot of magic from animals is very good and on point. I admit I semi-stole the idea of my reblog from my friend I was in a VC with and described the original post to; he was thinking about Avatar: The Last Airbender and how humans learned bending from animals in that. (Which is a very good plot element. I love that.)

[the-punforgiven]

I'm just saying, if you're going to worldbuild magic being a "raw, primal force, akin to and interweaving with nature itself" you gotta explain to me why animals don't use it

[the-punforgiven]

I know the normal answer is "they just aren't smart enough for it" but idk I've seen enough media where a character uses a spell in a moment of brain-off panic ilI feel like animals could probably stumble into a spell or two like, accidentally

[the-punforgiven]

Also how funny would it be to see a completely normal regular bear cast magic missile outta nowhere

[the-punforgiven]

Also there is no way ravens wouldn't figure out spells, tbh

They're smart fuckin birds, I believe in them

Either through observing or just figuring shit out ravens could 100% learn how to cast spells I'm sure of it

[the-punforgiven]

Dogs can also cast Magic Missile but every time they do the projectile is shaped like a bone or a stick and they chase after it

[monody-monody]

Counterargument: Spells as we know them are a product of the raw magical energy being filtered through the lens of the human(/sapient) psyche. Animals can channel that same energy, but in their own distinct ways.

I don't want to see a bear casting human spells; I want to see bear magic be its own phenomenon just as incomprehensible to humans as human magic is to bears.

[the-punforgiven]

I'm just saying, if you're going to worldbuild magic being a "raw, primal force, akin to and interweaving with nature itself" you gotta explain to me why animals don't use it

[the-punforgiven]

I know the normal answer is "they just aren't smart enough for it" but idk I've seen enough media where a character uses a spell in a moment of brain-off panic ilI feel like animals could probably stumble into a spell or two like, accidentally

[the-punforgiven]

Also how funny would it be to see a completely normal regular bear cast magic missile outta nowhere

[the-punforgiven]

Also there is no way ravens wouldn't figure out spells, tbh

They're smart fuckin birds, I believe in them

Either through observing or just figuring shit out ravens could 100% learn how to cast spells I'm sure of it

[the-punforgiven]

Dogs can also cast Magic Missile but every time they do the projectile is shaped like a bone or a stick and they chase after it

[memories-of-ancients]

Drinking horn with gilded copper mounts, Europe, 15th century

from The Hunt Museum, Limerick

[tarvek-sturmvoraus]

[localxenospores]

i was compelled

[beastoftheblackhole]

I was also compelled

[cckid01]

@randomitemdrop

[randomitemdrop]

Item: Walking Honker

[escuerzoresucitado]

[findingfeather]

I absolutely fucking hate this. Gold star, no notes.

[transgenderization]

like anyone who has spent any significant time modding skyrim or rimworld or. vintage story or whatever can tell youthis like alot of game mods take away from a game more than they add. becuase they have you engaging with the games core systems less.

[transgenderization]

i had this trouble trying to play vintage story specifically with a friend a while ago i never managed to explain it in a way that made him get it. like he was adding shit on every time i logged into the server and there was less stuff to do. because of all the things he kept adding. you add mammoths to the game and thats cool and you kill one and you get enough meat to last you forever. then you throw the meat in your ice cooler and it never rots. and a quarter of the game is gone. like you never have to engage with the food mechanics of the game ever again. you add in new weapons and new classes and expanded classes and repairable tools and armor and combat is trivialised and we never need to go mining again so what is there. even. left to do. lets finish the main story and then close the server. which is what we did.

[vixie-sticks]

Okay, as somebody who's created a modding project that got popular, this is a really interesting thing you need to tackle whenever you want to create a modded project that truly stands on its own: the fundamental question of how you keep the player engaged with the core mechanical cycle of the game.

Ultimately, there are two ways of going about this (which can and do coexist): the first is to balance things to make sure that they fulfill interesting niches in the game's systems. This is easier with something like Minecraft, in which a lot of the core loop is about engaging with weird little systems and seeing what you can do with them. It's a sandbox game ultimately, THOUGH you can very much run the risk of trivializing things if you go too far balance-wise.

Vintage Story, on the other hand, is a much more focused survival experience, so everything that you add to that game needs to be tailor-made to fit into the vision it's trying to achieve. While it's hard to see that vision in the mods made for the game, it's very easy to see it in the official updates, in which everything is super like. Methodical and stuff. For example, when vintage story added fishing, it also added overfishing mechanics to keep fishing from becoming THE META.

And on the other hand are full-on reimaginings of the core thematic interests of the game. Using Minecraft here again because that's what I have experience with, I spent about 8 months during covid making this modpack called Permafrost hat ended up getting really fucking big, primarily because it offers something different to Minecraft that stems from the same fundamental systems. Better than Adventure, as well as the upcoming Untagged and Untitled mod ive been keeping track of, are both massive branches/extensions of the game which focus on bringing back the weirder retro-style origins, one through mechanical changes and the other through weird dreamlike content.

The comparison I'd like to draw here is RimWorld and its expansions. Most of the rimworld expansions bring an experience that you could base an entire playthrough on. Anomaly and that new space station one in particular come to mind. In these cases, the appeals of modding and expansions come from offering a fundamentally altered experience using the same framework. However, a lot of rimworld mods seem to kind of miss this in favor of just. Adding new stuff.

I don't really have a point to make with all of this but the different answers people find to "How do I make this add-on without ruining the base game?" are super fascinating to me. Sorry for rambling :]

[monody-monody]

And then you've got the games that ruin their own design with updates, leaving entire assets, features, even gameloops vestigial. They're still in the game, but why would you ever use them?

I'm looking at you, Subnautica. Yes those large rooms are unbalanced and remove so much of the impetus for creativity with the base building system.

And it's one thing if they're replacing an old/placeholder feature with a new and improved one, but there are some cases where it gets worse instead!

The big one I always think about is No Man's Sky's NPC dialogue system; the game used to have hundreds of unique interactions with the random NPCs you can go up to and talk with on stations and at surface locations. These interactions would give some information in your selected language, the rest in the language of the NPC which you have to learn a word at a time as one of the game's progression mechanics, and then it asks you to make a choice based on the situation. This made learning the languages very helpful, and even if the encounters became repetitive after a while, they still offered a lot of flavor and tangibility to the setting. You learn that these species have certain cultural traits, and then you see them become relevant in gameplay when you make decisions based on them.

Now when you talk to NPCs they still give you the same openings of the old scenarios… but the unique options are replaced with a generic set. Each NPC is now just a walking knowledge stone, cultural-object-for-reputation exchange machine, and the "practice language skills" option which is a watered-down version of the old interactions: it just asks you to pick a word that species "likes" out of a list, like the poetry writing sections of DDLC. What a waste of all that writing, all that vibrance…