Character Ramble Blog

[silverliningsrr]

I forgot about Tumblr for a bit and now my entire feed is TADC. Which I can't complain about, honestly. Circusscrolling is much better than doomscrolling.

[silverliningsrr]

fun fact: .5% of all spells cast on crabs turn into more crabs. some asexual species of mimics have evolved to take advantage of this fact, although the mimic and crab communities are divided on how to label the results

[dayquil-driver]

so embarrassing when i forget im checking someone's blog and i start scrolling through and liking and reblogging shit as if it's just my dash. it feels like wandering into someone else's apartment and not noticing and making myself lunch

[dayquil-driver]

reblog if i can wander into your apartment (blog) and make myself lunch (like and reblog as if it's my dash)

[awed-frog]

Okay, you need to make sure you play this game at some point. Maybe not today or anything, because you’ll need about thirty minutes and a serious willingness to understand how it works, but - it’s so worth it. It’s basically an answer to our occasional frustration - why do assholes always come out on top? - and the beautiful thing about it is that not only does it explain how that happens, but also how we can change it.

“In the short run, the game defines the players. But in the long run, it’s us players who define the game.”

[youngnoblewoman]

This is fascinating if you’re into math or sociology or computer programming or all of the above.

[skeptictankj]

Everyone, everywhere, without exception, should play this thing through.

[anathaeum]

Don’t check just this - check out all of Nicky Case’s work. They’re a brilliant creator and I heavily recommend checking out at least one of their projects.  Their website can be found here.

Parable of the Polygons - an interactive experiment that shows how tiny individual biases can collectively cause segregation on a massive scale.

To Build a Better Ballot - an interactive experiment that shows the alternatives to the voting systems we currently use and how they can be more representative and democratic, along with their faults.

Coming Out Simulator - a short interactive story/novel about coming out, based off of Case’s own experiences. Not one I’ve played myself but still one I can recommend.

Loopy - a very simple but useful tool to show how systems interact with each other and how things can self-propagate.

We Become What We Behold - “ a game about news cycles, vicious cycles, infinite cycles.“ A short five-minute game about news and media. Warnings for violence, blood, death and stress.

[imtoobiforyou]

OH MY GOD THIS IS FRICKING AMAIZNG WOW WOW WOW WOW YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS YES INTELLECT 

[silverliningsrr]

Character Focus: Derivan!

artist is zoanluen on Twitter!

Oh man, Derivan.

I mean, his character concept was kind of what started this whole thing, right? I like monsters - if the tags on some of my other posts haven't made it obvious - and 'living armor' pushes a lot of buttons for me. There's a lot in the idea of being othered that resonates with the queer experience, and Derivan embodies a lot of that in a lot of ways by being, uh, a suit of armor that's afraid to let other people know that he's a suit of armor?

(It turns out they knew all along. Not completely, but they figured something was up, considering he never took off his helmet. 0 of his friends were surprised when it was eventually revealed.)

Derivan spent most of his formative years in a dungeon (the video game equivalent of a dungeon, as in a 'challenging location', not someone's basement), so he's very fascinated by the world at large - which explains a lot of his connection to Vex, who loves explaining just about everything in too much detail. Unlike most people who talk to Vex, Derivan sits and listens to every word attentively.

What's sort of funny is that a lot of people assume he's ace? I do have an ace character, but that's Sev. Derivan is demisexual. I leave further thoughts on this as an exercise to the reader. (Or you can respond to this post with theories.)

Derivan represents an outside-context problem for the system in the world of Edge Cases. He's essentially an embodiment of an issue I often find in video games - that video games will often designate 'monster races' that are all enemies, despite several of them being very clearly sapient. He's meant to be commentary on that aspect of the reductiveness of video game logic, so to speak.

He's very formal and thoughtful, he uses the lights in his helmet to express most of his emotions, and is otherwise protective of his friends, who were the first people to accept him. Found family vibes baybeeeeee

For those not familiar, Derivan is from my book, The Fabric of Reality.

[leafy-yezi]

Trade & sea food

[leafy-yezi]

Food for the desert lizard folks

**made up food don`t apply to real life food**

[silverliningsrr]

i dont know which part of tumblr i ended up in but a lot of the posts on my feed are like 90% wholesome and then in the last 10% it swerves into the most vividly raunchy nsfw text imaginable

[achesspiece]

[r/dragonadvice]

my (25M) kobolds (23F) (22M) (27M) (25F) (22F) (23M) (24F) (23M) (22F) (28M) (29F) (24M) (24F) (29M) (26M) (27F) (30F) (29M) (23M) (24F) (30M) (22M) (22M) (22M) (24M) (30F) (23M) (26F) (26M) (29F) (22M) (23F) (25F) (25M) (27F) (30M) (22M) have unionised

[silverliningsrr]

Character Focus: Vex!

Art commissioned from Shasta, who has requested to remain otherwise anonymous. Book release here!

Vex started off as both "I need to have a lizardman in my story" and also "I need to have a wizard in my story". These are non-negotiable aspects of fantasy storytelling.

Where was I?

Oh, right! Okay, so, lizard wizards. I mean, for one thing, lizard wizard is a delight to say. For the other, he kind of fulfilled a role as "the guy that explains stuff to Derivan, who has no real clue about how all these Real People go about their business, and has been very badly pretending for like two years".

He also started off as essentially the most developed character, I think, just by virtue of the fact that he had a hobby (art and sketching) and the others don't really have their hobbies come up very much.

The problem with his hobby is that he can't share his sketchbook with anyone because it is filled with an embarrassing number of sketches of one particular teammate. Whoops.

He dresses up as a rogue, ostensibly to confuse enemies, and also because he finds wizard robes to be impractical, even with their stat bonuses. This may or may not be partially because he is smol and the sleeves of robes all droop over his hands.

I actually don't really have much of a goal with these character focuses, I just ramble about whatever I can think about. Uh, he's also hopelessly gay? Yes. That.

If you like Vex you should check out the book he's from, The Fabric of Reality, which has an audiobook that's narrated by Travis Baldree. His Vex voice is so good, you guys.

Also I've been having a bad few days and writing about Vex makes me feel better, so... does that mean Vex is my emotional support lizard wizard?

[silverliningsrr]

book launchedddd

ive just self promod in a bunch of places and have no energy left

edge cases is a silly litrpg with some shenanigans and also elements of existential dread. it's mystery focused, dnd inspired, and has lots of cozy juxtaposed with stakes and sad things. but also happy things!

also it has a gay lizard, which means you have to read it

see! gay lizard. wizard. gay lizard wizard

(sketch originally done by @josephinebrause and i love it still)

yup that's all i got

here's a link!

and a more direct one if that doesn't work

also there's an audiobook where the narrator is travis baldree and he gave the lizard wizard like the cutest voice i swear

[silverliningsrr]

hehe book

[silverliningsrr]

Character Focus: Sev

Same story as the last! This shot comes from WIP by cosmiccroissant that was eventually replaced with my current cover (which I apparently have not posted here, whoops).

Sev was an interesting character to write. A lot of Edge Cases, when I was initially starting to write it, was intended to be commentary on the tropes we see in a lot of isekai and progression fantasy - and it's still very much that in a lot of ways. Sev was commentary on the "typical isekai protagonist".

To go too far into that would venture into spoiler territory, but the core components of his character is that:

He's been in the world of Edge Cases for a while. The planeshift event that brought him over happened ages ago.

He doesn't actually remember anything about Earth except maybe vague elements of its technology or culture. He doesn't remember much of his past, either - he gave it up a long time ago.

He's a cleric. I was going to go for "cleric that doesn't believe in the gods", but that seemed a little too obvious, so I went for "cleric that does believe in the gods but also just kind of treats them like normal people, which is refreshing for some gods and deeply insulting for others".

He's aroace!

If I got to write it again I'd probably emphasize that last aspect a bit more. Still, he's a fun character, and his sarcasm and sense of compassion is something I relate to deeply.

[silverliningsrr]

Character Focus: Misa!

So, this sketch comes from cosmiccroissant from when I commissioned him to do a cover for Edge Cases (which is my book and launches tomorrow). This is a WIP-stage sketch that I saved - with permission - because I mean... come on. Look at her. Misa is badass.

Edge Cases is heavily inspired by DnD, and Misa's character emerged from somewhere between my desire to exploit weird skills and protect people. I wanted a character that was a little bit rougher than the others to balance out the rest of the party; Derivan's too oblivious, Vex is too busy nerding out over magic, and Sev is too kind by half.

So Misa's thing is she can block anything. There are limitations; blocking a single attack costs 10% of her health, no matter how powerful the attack is. It's great against single, powerful attacks, and terrible against, say, a rain of arrows.

If this sounds like a setup for a shonen moment, you're right!

Misa likes fighting and proving herself, but that's less of a priority to her than protecting her friends. It's pretty much the reason she got the skill and class she did.

She's also pansexual, which comes up in like... book 3. She has a quote-unquote Tragic Past, but that's sort of a spoiler?

Feel free to ask any questions!

[silverliningsrr]

please look at these nerds

these are characters from edge cases, the book i'm publishing with podium! sentient armor and lizardman, he/him for both. it's a scene that happens in book one! is anything gay happening? who knows, haha

(yes but they are both oblivious to it)

the art is by the wonderful cosmiccroissant

[silverliningsrr]

as a side note for anyone tracking my digital footprint through the internet i would like to say that i may or may not be the real silver linings.

[silverliningsrr]

whoa my whole feed changed when i made that last post

alright im going to add a bunch of tags to this post because i need to curate my feed

do not look at the tags do not perceive me