In which Ugg is incoherent zombi because of love Dishonored much
OFFICIAL COSPLAY GUIDE.
HILARIOUS FAN ART.
LOVELY MEME COMMUNITY. (hi @justdishonoredthings u is a sweet!)
Listen I love these game so much I started this post several times and then I gave up because there’s no way this will be succinct. This is all you’re getting from me before I sabotage ALL the posts.
We’ve known each other for sixteen years and have been friends for most of them. We’ve had real influence on each other’s lives. In that time, we’ve only been in two fandoms together. (TF2 is the second. We’ll let you wonder about the first.) We have OCs, and they mean the world to us, but more than that, the TF2 community has been instrumental to our mental health.
Because sometimes when things get bad, we spam each other with every piece of TF2 art we can get our hands on, and this was something we did before either one of us had even made a Tumblr account. The multitude of TF2 fic and the quality of the writing, that really made us think, because y’all are writing from experience too.
[Ugg] Like that time Red wanted to go back to school to get a Master’s, and whenever she got down, I’d pull out a character to cheer her up. Sometimes it’s Scout and his improbable persistence, sometimes it’s Heavy and his PhD in Russian Literature. Other circumstances got in the way so it didn’t happen, but she gave it her all, no regrets.
[Red] Or times when Ugg has had to deal with social obligations (because ew humans and your weird rules about interacting) and family members being unpleasant. Sometimes the best antidote for social anxiety is a sarcastic Frenchman whose wardrobe is supplied by monk tailors and whose je ne sais quoi is infinite.
[Ugg] Despite its abundant silliness, when it comes to serious matters, the TF2 community is incredible, and that’s influenced the way we wrote our OCs. No one but Red has ever heard about some of these characters, but an OC based on an OC based on a canon character ended up saving my life multiple times. They’ve helped me work through panic attacks and suicidal thoughts, and I’m stronger and better prepared to live with my conditions for it.
[Red] In a lot of ways, my TF2 OCs are more family than my actual family. I have some nasty physical ailments to go with my intracranial quirks (oh hey, “intracranial” is actually a word!), and it’s just…it’s been an invaluable therapy tool/angst reliever to have these people in my head, to help me work out my limits and fears and frustrations. My face-to-face interactions with people are necessarily limited (see: ew humans), and I’m kind of naturally a loner, but having “friends in the computer,” as my mom puts it, has been the most amazing support network ever. No matter what time of day it is, I can turn to this fandom and find something that helps.
That’s a part of why we’re doing this. Your incredible works --art, writing, videos, crafts-- both past and present, have literally helped shape our psyches. We’re not BNFs in this community; far from it. We don’t have names anyone would recognize. Still, we want you to know that what you do matters, and we hope our little contribution makes life a little easier for someone else, as it has for us.
I love gardening, when I was growing up my gramma had four lovely gardens in three locations (granpa was loaded!). Mom tries to maintain a nice garden, but she inevitably forgets or does something the plants don’t like, or they just die because we live in such an arid place.
Me, I’ve learned to identify the plants that’ll make me feel like I know what I’m doing… very few, the answer is very few. I doubt they’d survive if my dear husband didn’t remember to water them.
So, unless you just want to have a cactus or two around, here are my suggestions for satisfyingly fast plants:
Tomatoes. Oh man they grow so fast and the leaves smell amazing.
Bell peppers. They grow fast and produce these little white flowers that then drop the petals and turn into peppers. We only ever had one grow to a full-size pepper, and by full-size I mean thumbnail-size. Still delicious!
Potatoes. A little harder to grow in pots since they’ll want to walk, but possible nonetheless. We didn’t take as much care of them and we thought they’d died and went to till their soil to use for something else when –surprise!– a little potato had grown after all! So you have to be more patient with the potatz.
We’ve also had limited success with basil, watermelon, oranges, and apples, but they’re more picky. Olives are very, very resilient, and I was surprised to see the coffee tree so happy in its little pot and growing so fast. The difference between growing your own and buying one turned out to be an adjustment period– when you change their environment, the plants will usually freak out and shed a ton of leaves, and need a bit of TLC and reassurance to grow back.
Yes I’m the sort of weirdo that loves plants more than animals. Plants don’t poop! Depending on what you think of each merc, they’re either the one handing out the TLC or the one that makes plants wilt with a single glance. Only plant people understand #thestruggle.
This has been an intense first day of any first days of anything. Thank you all so much for telling us you’re into this and spreading the word! Not only that, I’ve already seen our li’l competition pop up on my main blog. Y’all rock!
Now for an oldie but goodie to fire up those imaginations, everybody dance now~
You know what deserves another comic? Portal. Valve hasn’t really fleshed out the world there because the worlds of Half Life and Team Fortress 2 are bigger, though of course they’re all connected. If you’re a fan of both, you’re probably also fond of Sniper/Caroline <3
(If you don’t know that reference: the voice actor for Sniper, John Patrick Lowrie, is married to the voice actress for GLaDOS/Caroline, Ellen McLain.)
It makes me sad that thinkingwithportals has been gone for a year now, but the mapping community continues to make amazing levels in the Workshop! Both the fandom and the stories really shine in the community maps. Some are just puzzles or brain teasers, others are more linear stories, and still other explore entirely new stories on their own. This game really thrives on its community content.
So if you’re looking to crossover with Portal, check out the comic or try some new levels!
When deciding on the list of games, we tried to find games we had both played, even if weren’t really into the fandoms. Somehow in that long discussion, we both ended up thinking “Cool, you can judge Borderlands, I’ve heard a lot about it but haven’t played it”. As we were preparing new posts, we realized neither one had played it. Lesson learned: just because you trust each other’s judgement, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t double-check!
So the new game is Affairs of the Court: Choice of Romance, and we’ve updated the rules accordingly. If you haven’t played it, click the link! You can probably finish it a few times in one day. It’s a bit unconventional because there’s no official art, but the world is quite vivid, so you’ve got more freedom there. The rest of the rules are the same; stick to the canon characters (in both worlds!) and you’re good to go.
Please accept our most embarrassed apologies. We hope you understand this was simply the result of our experience with running competitions: none whatsoever.
Did you already have a Borderlands piece in progress? Please get in touch with us here on Tumblr or via email: uggredzomb at gmail dot com
