#darkautomaton

[ruthlesslistener]

Something tells me whoever this was, sending all these passive aggressive and even just plain aggressive anon asks, was trying to troll you. I used to get bullied by people who accused me of being an asshole because my autism often meant I was blunt and prone to taking arguments at face value, and someone looking at my speech in bad faith could easily interpret everything I say as some cruel jab or scolding when I wasn't trying to be. Hence why I don't answer asks like that; if they want to fume over their imaginary version of you, you have no obligation to humor their nonsense.

I honestly can't tell, they sounded genuinely really upset with me and angry at how I responded to them. The thing is, I don't know what else I'm supposed to do?? I answer each ask as genuinely and as straightforward as I can specifically to prevent misunderstandings, so I'm not sure if I can do the whole not-blunt thing. I do think over everything I say, but it seems like a lot of the time people skip to conclusions without actually thinking my words over, and I don't know how to fix that. Being less blunt would probably mean that I come off as less hostile but fuck, idk how to not be straightforward about something, and dodging the question feels manipulative and shitty. I also apologized multiple times for the things I knew I was wrong about. so I'm not really sure what else to do about that.

I'm grateful for the feedback, and I'm not saying that it's not a troll, but I'm also really ruffled by what's going on and extremely upset about the possibility that I genuinely am a piece of shit, as well as confused about how to improve it. I really don't want to come off as passive-aggressive or a bully, nor do I want any special social status just because I've been obsessed with hk for nearly four years. I'm not better than any other person in the fandom, nor have I ever considered myself to be better. I just don't know how to counter that when I clearly don't even know how I come off in the first place

[outofgloom]

I saw some of your writings on what the Skrall language might be like, and it got me thinking: The Bone Hunters have their own language, right? I imagine Bone Hunter is more a term applied to that group than a term they describe themselves as.

I believe it is stated somewhere that the Bone Hunters have their own linguistic variant, although it's unclear if this is actually a distinct "language".

Since the Bone Hunters are an offshoot of the Agori Rock Tribe, I've usually thought of them as speaking a dialect of Agoric (technically a variant of North Agoric), with a lot of contact with the Skrallic Language.

As for the name Bone Hunters itself, I suppose it could go either way, really. They are/were scavengers in the desert, hunting for the "bones" of past civilization.

[ruthlesslistener]

How do you think parent-teacher conferences would go with Herrah?

Either swimmingly well because the teacher running the conference is Vespa or the White Lady, or absolutely terrible because the teacher is the Pale King, and they have very different ideas on how to rear an opportunistic hypercarnivore. Any conferences with bugs from Hallownest would go terribly as well, but only for them; Herrah would either spend the whole session being amused at watching one of the Pale King's pets shake like a leaf, or she'd disagree with them and get a good meal out of it. Predation of allied forces is discouraged, but rules don't apply when you're the queen of Deepnest

[ruthlesslistener]

My mom used to own two really big boas when she was younger, and one time the one wasn't eating its last rat, so she gave it to the other so it wouldn't be wasted. Fast forward hours later, and she's holding it, when it just rips the absolute most violent fart she'd ever heard (or smelled; worry less about your snake strangling or biting you and more about gassing your fucking house).

yeah the one fucking thing that people won't warn you about when it comes to snakes is the dangers of Snake Fart. Those fuckers are far more violent and loud and dramatic about it than they are about anything else in their extremely simple noodle lives

[ruthlesslistener]

Where do people get off claiming eating animals is somehow immoral? Newsflash, friends, everything that doesn’t photosynthesize or chemosynthesize has to eat something that was alive at some point to survive. Plants and mushrooms are alive. You don’t get to call yourself special just because the living things you eat don’t move much.

It's a mixture of privilege and a disconnect from nature. Privilege, because they're rich enough to afford a meat-free diet that addresses all their nutritional needs, privilege because they can eat those diets without actively harming their own bodies, and privilege that they can live in an area where those options are available and they can waste resources keeping livestock as pets. The disconnect from nature comes about from the fact that they a.) have no idea how the food cycle actually works, b.) don't understand that many prey animals are very literally built to die after they've reached peak breeding capacity, c.) aren't actually involved in the process of raising or hunting an animal themselves, and d.) don't seem to realize that plants are capable of feeling (or at least responding) to pain, thus nullifying the whole 'living beings shouldn't suffer or be 'exploited' for other's gain' argument they make. Things die so that others can live. It's the way the world works, and it works that way for a very good reason. Just look up how wolves transformed Yellowstone for an example of how important predation is to maintaining the environment. Farming is just an adaptation of this food cycle to create a symbiotic relationship between humans and their crops/livestock, and while modern industrial farming certainly has a lot of problems atm with resource management, land management/human-wildlife conflict, and animal welfare, that doesn't negate the good that it has- and still is- doing throughout history.

I'm somewhat guilty of one of those disconnection privileges that runs rampant in America as well- Iactually used to cringe more at the thought of butchering animals until I started to actively watch hunting videos (done by both human and inhuman predators) and work with large ungulates. Most predators are adapted to kill their prey as fast as possible- since prolonging the time your food can fight back is dangerous- but human hunters have perfected their skills over millennia of honing them to drop an animal as fast as possible. This affords it a relatively pain-free death compared to the agonizing wasting of old age and diseases or the more inelegant death afforded by other predators, which ends up being kinder to the animal overall. Additionally, the carcass of a larger prey animal can provide a bounty of resources that can drastically increase your own survival, both in food and in tool use, which means that their life was not taken in vain. Hell, now that I'm actually watching hunting/butchering videos I'm thinking about taking it up myself, because then I would know for a fact that the animal's death was quick and that none of its body went to waste. It fosters more respect for the life of the prey in addition to filling your belly and giving you good leather and bone to work with.

(This isn't to say that being a vegetarian is bad, btw. I'm mostly talking about thickheaded white vegans who act like all meat eaters are terrible degenerates or some stupid shit like that.)

[chipper-smol]

So i headcanon that PK’s voice is the voice that you hear when you listen to the tablets in game. Like that whispery voice that sortve washes over your ears.

In the pale jester au, PJ does not whisper. PJ has that grandiose voice that a theater performer should have so that the entire audience can hear you when you’re down on stage. The only reason why he doesn’t deafen people is because PJ isn’t a god anymore. 

when you whisper you use a different part of your vocal chords and mouth, your voice sounds different. because PJ yells he uses his lungs more and his throat differently, his voice is a very stark contrast to PK’s. It’s unexpected to say the least. I don’t have a hc for PJ’s voice other than it can reach very high tones when he laughs/giggles.

his voice also breaks sometimes.

[multiversal-rhythm]

Dang, didn't know my crossover shenaniganery would be used in roleplay; that's pretty cool! I'm curious about your take on the AU.

oh shit hello- Honestly as the only person I’ve managed to get an interaction with is a Tatiana, that’s the only thing that’s gotten any alt takes Mostly that the interactions between the two won’t be draining and unhealthy...but that’s mostly because I personally write Hollow (or Sterling in this case) as being more of a gentle giant until provoked, and @edmpress‘ Tatiana just not being as cold

[transcending-chaos]

You think any of the creatures would embrace human swears, or do you think they'd lean more on using their own? On one hand, the idea of humans flipping out at hearing a creature say "fuck" would be grand, but on the other, how would creatures react to humans using creature swears?

I think it’s a pretty good split. Creatures more used to being around Players tend to pick up on their curses, whereas Players who’re more involved in Creatures’ lives and politics tend to pick up Perimian insults and swears.

Tom tends to mumble the biting, savage curses Maxxor knows as he’s tired in the Port Court. Kaz will snarl Chaor’s strings of insults under his breath when he’s frustrated. Wamma actually picks up on Sarah’s language and chitters them when frustrated. Similarly, Peyton and his Mipedian friends switch between their respective swears depending on who is in their current company.