Es wird kalt.

Sie sind wilkommen. Haben keine Angst oder so.

[sirshio]

Well, new pinned post.

- Shio

- 25+

- autistic + OCD

- they/them or he/him

- nb transmasc

My very active fandoms:

Kingdom come: deliverance 2 (😔✊️), Yuukoku no Moriarty/Moriarty the patriot, Milo Murphy's law, Romance Club novels

My side blog where's I'm rather salty and toxic about RC: @ramesses-my-beloved

Some NSFW is here.

[apolladay]

Have you watched The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998)

- Yes

- No

Have you watched The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998)?

yes

no

Remaining time: 4 days 21 hours

[problematic-character-tournament]

ROUND 1 — Match 1 of 138

Valdemar (The Arcana)

Problematic because: "Valdemar is Lucio’s Quaestor and head physician during the Red Plague. They’re hired to help cure the plague, especially Lucio, but they deliberately drag the process out because they’re more interested in experimenting than helping people. They dissect bodies (and vivisect people alive - like, they're obsessed with vivisection), use the plague as an opportunity for 'medical research', and are tied to the secret dungeon/lab under the palace. They also make deals with the Devil, weaken Death through that connection, and are one of the most openly cruel courtiers. They’re not conflicted about it either." Propaganda: "They’re one of the few Arcana characters who doesn’t really bother pretending to be nicer than they are. They’re calm, clinical, creepy, and very direct about their interests, which makes them stand out from the other courtiers in a different way. I like them because they bring a more medical-horror flavour to the story. Lucio is selfish and theatrical, Vulgora is loud violence, Volta is sad hunger, Vlastomil is gross and corrupt, but Valdemar is controlled. They feel dangerous because they’re curious, not because they’re angry, which makes them very effective as a villain."

vs. Keith (Date Everything!)

Problematic because: "He starts off as this sweet older skeleton key you find in the crawlspace, and the game very much wants you to go “aw, poor guy, why was he left down there?” He helps you open the attic, talks about not remembering what happened to him, and if you follow his route he gets you to help hack into an old online journal/account to “solve” his past. The route also keeps warning you not to question his innocence too much if you want the Love ending, which is already a little suspicious in hindsight. Then you Realize him - basically turn him into a human - and the nice old man act drops. He reveals he’s been using you, takes your money, and bails. So he builds trust, plays vulnerable, gets the player to help him access money, hurts Dorian in the process too, and then leaves everyone standing there like. Oh. Okay. Grandpa was evil actually." Propaganda: 1. "Keith is a really fun kind of awful because the betrayal actually works on the player. You meet him, he seems gentle and sad, he has history with Dorian, and the whole game has trained you to expect weird little object-people with emotional baggage. So when it turns out he’s been playing you, it’s mean, but it’s also kind of brilliant. I like that he’s one of the few routes where the game goes, no, sometimes the suspiciously charming person really was suspicious. He’s horrible for it, but I can’t pretend it wasn’t memorable." 2. "keith is so evil for making me care about him first. like sir you are a key. why are you emotionally scamming me. he acts all sweet and wounded and “oh no i was abandoned in the crawlspace” and then the second he gets a human body he’s off with your money. and poor dorian has to deal with the emotional fallout too!! awful man. but also unfortunately very funny" 3. "getting catfished by a skeleton key is insane and he deserves recognition for that alone. he’s lying in the crawlspace like a sad little object granddad, gets you to trust him, gets you to help with his whole mystery, and then immediately pulls the dating sim equivalent of stealing your wallet and fleeing the country"

Who should advance?

Valdemar

Keith

Voting ended onJun 2

(Disclaimer: All text above was sent in by submitters and not written by OP.)

[samkcdweek]

resources for non-Jewish creators

hi! I'm @gifographicmemory, one of the coordinators of Sam Week :D @ptacku and I, as well as several other Big Sam Fans, organized this event.

first things first, @ptacku is a Jewish mod and is happy to answer any questions re: Sam and Judaism submitted to this blog. in his words, "I love yapping so fucking much please god let me yap"

I myself am not Jewish. I knew basically nothing about Judaism when I first started getting interested in Sam. the only way I learned anything was by asking questions in the #samuel of kuttenburg tag and receiving very generous, enthusiastic answers from folks who wanted to share what they knew.

all this to say, if you're too intimidated to participate in Sam Week because you don't know anything about Judaism and/or you're scared to offend, please rest assured:

doing the research, being genuinely curious, asking good faith questions, and taking feedback/corrections with grace (even if it's imperfect or embarrassing or you end up missing the mark) will always be more appreciated than ignoring Sam or his faith entirely.

TL;DR: below the cut are some (non-exhaustive) resources on Judaism for creators who want to participate in Sam Week but don't know where to start!

GENERAL:

KCD2 Codex Entry - Jews

My Jewish Learning - general resource for all things regarding Judaism, including food, traditions, holidays, prayer, and more

Keeping Kosher

HISTORY:

Crash Course in Medieval Jewish History

Christendom - how Jews living under Christianity in Europe were ruled by the church and state

Expulsion and Readmission - how and why Jews were frequently expelled from their holdings in Europe during the Middle Ages, including historical examples

Jewish Commerce in Christendom

RELIGION:

Jewish Conceptions of God in the Middle Ages

Conversion History: Middle Ages - medieval Jewish views on conversion to Judaism, and the prohibition of proselytization

GENDER AND SEXUALITY:

Jewish Women in Medieval Christendom

Medieval Jewish Attitudes Toward Women

Judaism and Sex: Questions and Answers

LANGUAGE:

Yiddish dictionary lookup

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS:

submit questions to this blog's inbox! seriously! let the man yap!

finally, I'm just including this picture cuz I think it's funny and relevant lol

[mountainstackedwithfear]

[apolladay]

Airports are always telling you if you see something say something. Have you ever reported something you saw at an airport, or have you heard a story from someone where that actually happened?

Yes

No

Airports are always telling you if you see something say something. Have you ever reported something you saw at an airport, or have you heard a story from someone where that actually happened?

yes

no

Voting ended onJun 1

[yesornopolls]

Is it wrong to flirt with a widow/widower at the cemetery (assuming it has been an appropriate amount of time since their spouse died and they are just visiting their grave)?

Is it wrong to flirt with a widow/widower at the cemetery (assuming it has been an appropriate amount of time since their spouse died and they are just visiting their grave)?

Yes

No

Voting ended onMay 31

[cuunos]

hey can everyone do me a favor and put in the tags why they chose their name? even if you don't go by a chosen name irl, you can put why you chose your online name.

[sirshio]

❌️ to romance Declan

✅️ to matchmake him with Fabian

Who needs toxic het when you can have toxic yaoi! I, for starters, don't need a single one straight ship in this story.

(context: someone found out (using RC code) that it will be possible to make them a couple)

[queerasfact]

Happy birthday Magnus Hirschfeld!

Hirschfeld was born 14 May in 1868 into a German Jewish family. A pioneering sexologist, he advocated for the acceptance of queer identities, including the decriminalisation of male homosexuality in Germany. He founded the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexology) in Berlin – the world’s first sexology research centre – which developed some of the first modern gender-affirming surgeries.

In 1933, the Nazi party forced the closure of the Institute, and destroyed much of Hirschfeld’s work. Nonetheless, his research remains an important influence on queer liberation and studies of sexuality.

[sirshio]

Happiness is when you can use your hyperfixations in uni papers 🥰

I'm currently writing a paper about Blok's poem "Twelve", and I've already decided that my final thesis would be about Blok's works, too.

(I wanted to write thesis about Akutagawa-sensei, but I was told I have to be fluent in Japanese for this 😔)

[sirshio]

TW mentions of suicide and politics

The only valid type of patriotism was the one my sensei Akutagawa had. He loved Japan (and Tokyo, where he was born and lived), he loved the fact he is Japanese, he loved this culture, but very much disliked and disapproved the Japanese government and military class. "To be an ideal soldier", wrote he in one of his essays, "one must lose his mind and conscience". He also wrote very satirical essays about government and politics.

I grieve his suicide, such a person deserved to live a happy life, but I can't help but think that he would very much dislike Japan in 1930s and 1940s. Maybe it was better for him to die than to continue living in homeland that became everything he hated.

(P.S. Shio's favorite writers: depressed Japanese, depressed Russian and depressed Jew)

[sirshio]

No talk he angy

(I was enjoying syrniki for breakfast - small cottage cheese pancakes - this one was a bit burnt, and it caused such a face-like thing on it)

[in-my-fop-era]

my dear historical-figure-in-law (historical figure my mutual loves who i know next to nothing about otherwise)

[sirshio]

Me & all these long gone people my dear comrade @shmuel-ben-sarah-kcd2 posts about 🥰

[sirshio]

An addition to this post:

She's such a fujoshi 🤭 also she's absolutely right!

(sorry for having autoclicker menu on screen)

[sirshio]

A so-called review on Te Amo 2!

Full of spoilers, so under cut.

After the first volume, which was bad in many ways, I had zero expectations for the second one, but it immediately became one of my very favorite stories! It has a better MC, better written LIs (especially female ones), better humor and a better plot, obviously. It seems to me that Dmitry decided to play it safe and didn't write an ending where MC is still in coma or even died (I thought that it could've happened without enough points of Confidence). Instead of it, the lack of Confidence points causes only memory loss, but even in this case there's a happy ending. Not a bad thing, though. It's a simple, cozy, sometimes touching and sometimes funny story to have a good time, and I love it as it is. I mentioned before it's like 2000s romcoms, and going to say that RC needs this kind of stories, too, without overwhelming supernatural (yes, this story is supernatural too, but in a contemporary way), without drama and all this stuff. I miss it already and I sure will restart it, maybe around New Year, because it has a cozy and a little bit magical vibe.

The plot is simple, yet very touching. Tender and fragile, like innocent children's dreams 🥺 title suits it very well. Epilogue almost made me cry...

I mentioned there's a better MC than in first volume. That's right, Liz is WAY better than Jane. She has personality and feels like a fully-fledged character and not just a placeholder for stats. Not gonna lie, I would love to read a three-seasoned story with this MC! I have two slots, for Rationality and for Intuition, and both of my MCs really are different, but both are adorable and relatable. Love my Yukiko and Lutz!

What wasn't great here is, well, romance. It seemed to me that it existed only in romantic options. A lot of romantic VNs (both other stories in RC and in other similar apps) have the similar problem, sadly, but it feels like other are a bit better with it. But at least romantic options were written decent enough. I guess Dmitry isn't entirely good in writing romance, that's all. I think he is capable of writing good stories for RC, but I wish he either improve how he writes about love or find a co-author who will help him.

As I said, I have two slots, one for Matt (I'm weak for redheads, don’t judge me), another for Diana. I loved them both! Seemed to me that Matt is author's favorite character, since he had more screen time than other characters did, but I also saw that Dmitry tried to give enough attention to his other LIs, and I'm going to say he did a good job. Not a perfect one, Matt had more attention than others to the very end, but good. And Diana is really good written! I liked how she can be tough, reserved, but gentle at the same time (and beautiful, not to forget this, I want to replay just to stare at her abs again...). I rarely see female characters with "masculine" jobs, but being a carpenter really suits her! I wish there were more characters like her.

This is my thing, but I’m not a fan of intimate scenes in this story. I mean, their mere existence. Being a demisexual myself, I'm like this in fictional romances, too. I almost never enjoy a sexual scene with a character if there isn't enough connection between my character (and me, too) and them. I need to spend more time with them, grow closer to them, all this stuff. But, as I said, this is my thing, and despite I would love to have a sex-free story, a majority of players would be very mad at this, lol. Sure there was an option to write two final scenes with LIs - one with sex, another one with kisses/cuddles/etc., but I understand that this would add a lot of work, and, in addition, a mostly useless work, because I'm sure the 90% of players would choose the sexual scene.

Talking about sex scenes. Maybe I'm wrong (hope I am), but it seemed to me that Matt's scene was more rich than Diana's one. With Matt, there was two acts of oral pleasures (aside from "classic" sex), and with Diana, there was something a little bit vague. Don't get me wrong, when it comes to smut, I really prefer if author pays attention to emotions and feelings, definetely won't mind if they will make physical interactions vague. What bothers me is difference between a straight sex and wlw one. I would understand if this was tied to Dee's personality and how she acts in bed, but it seems that it isn't the case.

And ending. It was very sweet, loved it, so tender and kind. Also I noticed there's a difference between Diana's and Matt's endings on their routes and outside of them (I assume this difference is between a "route ending" and "outside the route ending"). Matt's proposal scene in the air was great! But. I get why there wasn’t a proposal on Diana's route (story is set somewhere in Europe, maybe homosexual marriage is illegal there), but I would love something like "Let’s live together" from Dee. No need in big gestures, this doesn't fit her, but this offer would be very nice and romantic, I think.

Some small, yet nice touches: I liked how the window (final one, where stats are shown) changed accordingly to characters' dreams and how drawings appeared! Also, it was cute that achievements were displayed as Christmas tree decorations! It's something new, I don't remember other stories have this.

What I also enjoy is MC's dream and her snowball. First, to wish for all friends' wishes to come true is so very sweet and really suits both MC and plot. Second, I liked that she didn't found her snowball and friends gave her a new one. Can't explain why, but this was a good idea.

To sum up all of above: I enjoyed this story very much. Despite its flaws, it's a pretty good story itself and also it is a big progress for Dmitry. I'm kinda sad he takes a pause and wish he will return with new energy (and understanding he is not especially good in writing romance). I sure will reread Te Amo 2, maybe even more than once!

A few CGs (I didn’t especially liked one for kiss with Diana, so here's another one instead) and both my MCs with my favorite clothes :)

[apolladay]

People who are attracted to men/mascs- how do you feel about facial hair (mustache, beard, side burns)?

* yes facial hair- mustache, beard, and side burns!

* yes mustache and beard, no side burns

* yes mustache and side burns, no beard

* yes beard and side burns, no mustache

* mustache only- no beard or sideburns

* beard only- no mustache or sideburns

* sideburns only- no beard or mustache

* just a little stubble/five oclock shadow

* no facial hair- clean shaven only!

* depends too on the person

* I’m not attracted to men/mascs

* see results

People who are attracted to men/mascs- how do you feel about facial hair (mustache, beard, side burns)?

yes facial hair- mustache, beard, and side burns!

yes mustache and beard, no side burns

yes mustache and side burns, no beard

yes beard and side burns, no mustache

mustache only- no beard or sideburns

beard only- no mustache or sideburns

sideburns only- no beard or mustache

just a little stubble/five oclock shadow

no facial hair- clean shaven only!

depends too on the person

I’m not attracted to men/mascs

see results

Voting ended onMay 17